Matthew Boast justified the praise lavished on him by DP World Lions captain Dominic Hendricks, taking five wickets — including that of Hendricks — to give the Warriors control of the Four-Day Series final at the Wanderers.
Boast came into the final as the competition’s leading wicket-taker on 38 and demonstrated why he’s been so successful with testing spells using the new and old ball to leave the Lions fighting to hang on to their opponents’ coattails.
At stumps on day 2, the home team were on 193/7 in their first innings, still 112 runs behind the Warriors, with Boast claiming 5/35.
The 23-year-old’s journey as a professional saw him up sticks from Centurion, where’d made his first-class debut for the Titans, and head to Gqeberha at the end of last season. At the Titans he performed well but couldn’t occupy a regular spot in their starting team.
The move has certainly proved beneficial where, under the tutelage of veteran teammate Duanne Olivier and head coach Robin Peterson, Boast has become the spearhead of the Warriors attack. He’s not the quickest but does rush batters and his ability to nip the ball both ways is unsettling.
Before the final, Hendricks described Boast as a “great acquisition”, and it took only three overs for Boast to prove his point, when he found the outside edge of the Lions captain’s bat, with substitute fielder Matthew de Villiers diving to his left to grab a sharp catch at third slip.
Boast showed excellent control of both line and length which tied up a Lions batting unit that scored 558 last week. He first gained the cricket fraternity’s attention in 2023, when the Pretoria Capitals forked out R1.6m for him in the SA20 auction, with Jacques Kallis, then on the Capitals coaching staff, lauding him.
“We got a good look at Matthew last season when he bowled to us in the nets and we were really impressed with him there. He bowls with good pace and with the bat he gives it a good smack as well,” Kallis said at the time.
Boast set the tone for the period of pressure that saw the Lions lose three wickets for 14 runs before and after lunch, picking up the wickets of Richard Seletswane — who hit some lovely drives in his innings of 32 — and Wandile Makwetu, who was caught at leg gully, as part of a well constructed plan.
Connor Esterhuizen and Wiaan Mulder, centurions a week ago, struggled to assert themselves against disciplined bowling from the Warriors’ seamers, and despite sharing a partnership of 50, the fact that it came at a scoring rate of only 2.5 runs an over indicates how hard they were made to work.
Mulder completed a second half-century this season, but was caught behind off Gideon Peters’ bowling, before Boast returned from the Golf Course End, to complete his five-wicket haul — his fourth this season — when he had Bjorn Fortuin caught by a diving Patrick Kruger at second slip.
Earlier it took the Lions 20 minutes to finish off the Warriors first innings for 305, with Codi Yusuf and Mulder dismissing Wesley Bedja and JP King respectively. King top-scored for the Warriors with 123.
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