Knights keep on battling

Pretoria - A trio of half-centuries fuelled the Knights’ hope of clinging on for a draw as David Wiese continued to enjoy an excellent Sunfoil Series outing at SuperSport Park.

Having already thumped a century on day two to help the Titans post 452 for nine, Wiese went on to pick up figures of 6 for 58 as the Knights were bowled out for 297 in reply.

Asked to follow on, the visitors reached 97 for three when bad light stopped play on day three, leaving them 58 runs short of forcing the Titans to bat again.

Their saviours came in the form of two lower-order efforts in the second innings, with Michael Erlank (53) and Dillon du Preez (68) lifting them from 155 for seven, and a fluid second-innings knock from Reeza Hendricks, who finished the day unbeaten on 65.

There were plenty of other batsmen who managed to get in during the first innings - the problem was that at some stage Wiese found them out.

The Knights resumed on 85 for four and found themselves regularly pegged back, and would have conceded an even larger deficit if it were not for Erlank’s three and a quarter-hour defiance, and Du Preez’s 61-ball whirlwind.

Things became desperate in the second innings when Marchant de Lange (2 for 27) reduced them to 42 for three, but Hendricks kept scoring freely and added an unbroken 55 with Pite van Biljon, who went to stumps on 22 not out.