South Australia made a winning start to their Champions League T20 campaign as they beat the home team, Lions in the fourth game of the tournament. The match was played at the Centurion.
Lions won the toss and decided to field first, and for a while it looked like they had taken the right decision. The South Australian batting failed to get the desired momentum at the start of the innings as the pair of Daniel Harris and Michael Klinger were pegged back by some excellent bowling by Werner Coetsee and Robert Frylinck. 
Harris was sent back Frylinck, which was followed by another scrappy innings by Graham Manou, who departed for 12 (16 balls), to leave the side in a bit of a mess at 52/2 in 8.2 overs. The track was flat enough for 150 to be chased down and at that stage, it looked like a distant dream.
However, Callum Ferguson then joined his captain Klinger and slowly, but steadily got the innings back on track. Aaron Phangiso, the left-arm spinner, was seen off, and once he had completed his quota the pair went after the Warriors’ bowling. Klinger smacked a 48-ball 73, while Ferguson, who was making a comeback after his knee surgery got 47 off just 27.
In the end, South Australia managed to get to 178/7 in their 20 overs; a score which they would have been very happy with.
As it turned out, the Lions went after the runs from the word go. Jonathan Vandiar was the hero of the first game for his side, but Shaun Tait sent him back in the first over, while Vaughn van Jaarsveld gave his wicket away to Daniel Christian. However, it was captain Petersen, who showed the way with a delightful half-century, as he propelled the scoring rate forward.
Chasing nine runs per over can never be easy from the very start, but Petersen did his best. His 56 came off 35 balls, and at one stage, it looked like the side was in with an even chance. However, the issue for the Warriors was that they kept losing wickets at regular intervals at the other end, and by the time the last over was being bowled, the side needed 19 to win the game.
Without too many wickets in hand, the target was almost unachievable and the South Australia side won by 11 runs in the end. Captain Klinger won the man of the match award for his fine half century.