Raynardt van Tonder of the Knights in action during day 1 of their 4-Day Domestic Series game against the Lions at Mangaung Oval in the Free State on Sunday. Picture: Frikkie Kapp, BackpagePix
BLOEMFONTEIN – Raynard van Tonder continued his strong start to the 2020/21 4-Day Domestic Series season with a fourth career century that helped the VKB Knights dominate the opening day of their clash against the Lions in Bloemfontein on Sunday.
The young right-hander amassed an unbeaten 180 (226 balls, 23 fours, 2 sixes) at the Mangaung Oval where the hosts went to stumps on 327/6 after winning the toss and batting.
Van Tonder was man alone, though, as the next best contribution came via Matthew Kleinveldt’s 28.
However, last season’s top-scorer demonstrated why he is one of South Africa’s brightest talents with another superb display for his team.
Kleinveldt and fellow opener Grant Mokoena (26) put on 46 for the opening wicket, before the former was dismissed by Malusi Siboto (1/51).
That brought Van Tonder to the middle and he was there for the remainder of the day.
The 22-year-old dropped anchor as others around him fell regularly. He put on 47 with Pite van Biljon (12), 55 with Patrick Kruger (25) and most significantly 111 with Shaun von Berg (21) for wicket number six.
He was still there by the close, with debutant Ferisco Adams (11) unbeaten alongside him. Lutho Sipamla (2/43) and Tladi Bokako (2/61) collected two wickets each for the Lions.
Van Tonder had also moved top of the run-scoring charts with 582 runs in his ninth innings of the season.
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