South Africa thrash England Lions in warm-up match 14 Aug, 2008 © AFP
South Africa warmed up for next week's Twenty20 international against England with a four-wicket win over the England Lions at Grace Road on Thursday. England Lions face South Africa again at Derby on Saturday, when they will be led by Middlesex's Ed Joyce, before the tourists start the one-day series with a Twenty20 International against England at Chester-le-Street next Wednesday. The tourists, who did not field captain Graeme Smith, all-rounder Jacques Kallis, seamer Morne Morkel and wicketkeeper Mark Boucher, got the required runs with 11 overs remaining in this first warm-up match against the Lions. Lions captain Rob Key, whose side have six members of England's one-day squad, said: "That was pretty much a drubbing really and that's not a true reflection of the two sides - I think we're a better side than that. "Whoever you're playing for, it's always disappointed to get beaten like that when you know you should have done better because you walk off the field thinking we mucked up today and it should have been a lot tighter than that. "We're probably more used to that sort of pitch than those guys are. It was a little damp in the morning but even so we should have been a little bit smarter with bat and ball." Put into bat, the Lions were dismissed for a lowly 184 with captain Key top-scoring with 51 and Herschelle Gibbs effectively settled the issue with a patient 81 off 104 balls, which included six fours and a six, for their final score of 185-6. | 
