Ken Borland

The DP World Lions scored the least number of runs in the powerplay out of all the teams in the CSA T20 Challenge, and yet they went on to top the log and win the competition in convincing fashion, which points to how smart their cricket was, and in the last two weeks it had a lot to do with the riches of experience brought to the number three position by Rassie van der Dussen.

The final at the DP World Wanderers Stadium last weekend was a case in point. The Momentum Multiply Titans went hard in the powerplay and consequently made a poor start on a tricky pitch, crashing to 34 for three in the first six overs. That became 54 for six in the ninth over and our DP World Lions were in a powerful position early in the game.

“Aiming for around 40 in the powerplay has served us well,” head coach Russell Domingo said after claiming the title with a clinical eight-wicket win with 29 balls to spare. “I’m a bit old-fashioned in that I like to have wickets in hand, be more circumspect up front, especially at the DP World Wanderers where the ball does a bit. A lot of people think the first six overs are the most important, but I think the last six are.”

Van der Dussen has epitomised that smart cricket since he returned to the team from duty overseas for the last two round-robin matches and then the playoffs – notching scores of 43 (off 33 balls), 59 (38), 40* (37) and 44 not out in the final off just 31 deliveries. That saw him to the top of the final batting averages with 186 runs at an average of 93 and a healthy strike-rate of 133.81.

“We know how to play at the DP World Wanderers and it’s not as if the pitch gets better in the second innings. So in the first 10 overs we’ve been happy to be around run-a-ball as long as we’re not too many wickets down, because from 60 for six there is no coming back, like we saw in the final,” Van der Dussen said.

“So we’re happy if we’re 60 for two or three at halfway because then we are set up to get 160/170. We’re really trying to guard our wickets. At a place like SuperSport Park, where it’s really flat and the ball flies, you can take on the powerplay and you can be 70 after six overs. But we use our home advantage.

“I’m happy playing a certain way and I do have a few years of experience. My stats get nit-picked and it’s been said that I don’t score enough runs in my first few balls. So I’ve had to find the balance between righting those stats and the fact that I really want to win. I will do whatever is needed to win, whatever it takes to get to the playoffs. People use stats in whatever way suits them, but there’s only one thing that’s always at the forefront of my mind and that’s what’s needed to win in the current situation. I love playing for the Lions and I just want them to win,” Van der Dussen said.

The other obvious feature of our DP World Lions’ triumph was how the absence of Proteas stars like Temba Bavuma, Ryan Rickelton, Wiaan Mulder and Kagiso Rabada did not stop the charge of #ThePrideOfJozi to the title.

“It’s been great to see that despite having lost Ryan, Temba, KG and Wiaan to the Proteas, and myself, Reeza Hendricks, Nqaba Peter and Bjorn Fortuin at the start, we were still able to defend our title,” Van der Dussen said. “To see others coming in has been fantastic, like Junaid Dawood, who still finished as the leading wicket-taker in the competition, with Kwena Mapahaka, even though he didn’t play the last few games.

“That’s always our challenge at the DP World Lions, to rectify the loss of our Proteas, to fill the gaps. Russell communicated with us at the start of the season that it was not a long tournament, so he also had to balance giving guys playing opportunity. The back-up guys also need to get game-time, you need to give them responsibility so we can see what we’ve got after the internationals.

“They have filtered in really well and it’s been a totally different team to win the competition this season. And it’s been great to see the same principles that we aspired to last season – things like work ethic, not getting ahead of ourselves and there being no egos, speaking the same language – have been there again.

“But when you have leaders like Jono Leaf-Wright and Russell Domingo, then they keep you so grounded. Jono is just the best human being and Russell is always really direct and honest with us,” the veteran stalwart of #ThePrideOfJozi said.

A quickfire half-century from Sherfane Rutherford and the express pace of Gideon Peters sent the Pretoria Capitals surging to the top of the SA20 standings on Monday night with their bonus point victory over a subdued MI Cape Town at SuperSport Park.

The in-form Rutherford struck a pugnacious but classy 53 off just 27 balls to lift Pretoria Capitals to 185 for six after they had been sent in to bat, providing a fabulous late boost to an innings that was restrained in a first 15 overs in which they could only score 101 for four.

Peters then took three wickets in his first two overs, prompting a dramatic collapse that saw MI Cape Town lose four wickets for nine runs between the powerplay and the halfway mark of their innings. MI Cape Town eventually limped to 132 for seven, losing by 53 runs.

Reeza Hendricks scored 68 not out off 50 deliveries, but he struggled to bat with any freedom, his first 30 runs coming off 35 balls before a late flurry saw him collect four sixes which really were too little too late.

The rest of the MI Cape Town batsmen did not cover themselves in glory either. Openers Rassie van der Dussen (15) and Ryan Rickelton (7) both fell to boundary catches inside the powerplay, while Nicholas Pooran lashed 17 off five deliveries and then promptly cut Andre Russell straight to short third man.

Corbin Bosch (2), Karim Janat (0) and George Linde (0) proved to be a very fragile middle-order, and even the big-hitting Jason Smith could only score 13 off 17 balls as he and Hendricks meandered to a 34-run partnership between the 10^th and 15^th overs.

On paper, the team from the Western Cape should be playing beautiful T20 cricket; the defending champions boast the most successful opening pair in SA20 history in Van der Dussen and Rickelton, and Pooran, Linde and Smith are feared boundary-hitters. A bowling attack of Boult, Rabada, Bosch, Rashid and Linde is a coach’s dream for T20 cricket.

But MI Cape Town have been as fragile as the delicate Disa orchids that are the emblem of the Western Cape, showing none of the resilience this summer of the Proteas which that area is also famous for. They are now at the bottom of the log, five points behind the Paarl Royals in the fourth and final playoff place, with the Boland team having two games in hand.

Their highly-rated bowling attack was also disassembled by the Capitals, as their poor death bowling once again reared its ugly head.

Rutherford and Dewald Brevis (34 off 19) lashed 84 runs off the last five overs to give the home side an above-par total on a tricky pitch for batting. It was a two-paced surface with variable bounce and all bowlers needed was basic discipline in sticking to lines and lengths to make life hard for the batsmen.

That’s where Peters excelled as he took three for 32, brilliantly supported by Lungi Ngidi (4-0-29-1), Lizaad Williams (4-0-27-1), Russell (4-0-20-1) and spinner Keshav Maharaj (4-0-19-1).

“We just tried to do the basics better tonight. Sometimes you just try to do so much as batters that you get bowled out inside 20 overs or as bowlers you get whacked around. I was just trying to hit the top of off-stump,” Peters said.

The Pretoria Capitals certainly gave the defending champions an education in how to play on pitches with a bit of spice, keeping resources in hand for a late surge but also ensuring the platform was laid with positive intent.

An investment in the playing depth of our DP World Lions men’s team paid off at the weekend with the successful defence of the CSA T20 Challenge title, with head coach Russell Domingo expressing his delight with how the newer faces in the team performed.

The DP World Lions clinched the crown with a commanding eight-wicket win with 29 balls to spare over the Momentum Multiply Titans, a triumphant conclusion to a campaign in which #ThePrideOfJozi played nine matches and won seven of them. The champions used 17 players in the competition, with Connor Esterhuizen, Evan Jones, Delano Potgieter and Mitchell van Buuren the only players to appear in all nine games.

Last season’s triumph was played over a double-round of fixtures and 18 players were used by Domingo. Proteas stars like Ryan Rickelton, Rassie van der Dussen, Wiaan Mulder, Reeza Hendricks, Temba Bavuma and Bjorn Fortuin were able to play just about every match.

With this season’s CSA T20 Challenge happening at the start of the season, as opposed to the end of the 2023/24 campaign, our DP World Lions had to dig a bit deeper into their resources.

Rickelton, Hendricks, Van der Dussen and Mulder all scored more than 200 runs last season; this season it was Esterhuizen leading the way with 199, closely followed by Hendricks and Van der Dussen, who played 10 games between them. Wandile Makwetu was the other chief run-getter.

Nqaba Peter was the leading wicket-taker last season with 20 scalps in 10 games, earning him a deserved call-up to the Proteas team, which meant he could only play five matches this campaign. Bjorn Fortuin (18), Codi Yusuf (16) and Lutho Sipamla (14) were the other main wicket-takers in 2023/24.

This season our Pride contributed the two leading wicket-takers in the entire competition, Junaid Dawood and Kwena Maphaka both taking 13 wickets, while Sipamla and Evan Jones contributed 16 scalps between them.

“Every trophy is special but to defend the title with largely a different team feels very special indeed,” Domingo said. “Having a lot of Proteas away gave opportunity to other players and I am very pleased that  they put their hands up. Junaid and Kwena were leading wicket-takers, I thought Mitch did a great job as captain before Bjorn returned, and Connor and Wandile gave very good performances.

“We make sure we learn every day, whether we win or lose. The Titans gave us a hiding in the first game, but that was a wake-up call to make sure we weren’t complacent. This is a tough competition, the boys needed to step up and they did,” Domingo said.

While Domingo’s intention had been to rotate seamers Sipamla, Yusuf and Tshepo Moreki through the season, Sipamla took his opportunity at the end of the tournament to write himself into the history books, his figures of four for 12 at the DP World Wanderers Stadium at the weekend being the best ever in a CSA T20 Challenge final.

“It was a really big performance from Lutho, he’s had a lot of injuries and missed a lot of last season. I wanted all the seamers to play five games, but Lutho has done really well at the back end. He works extremely hard and it was a fantastic spell,” Domingo said.

“We didn’t want to bowl too full on that pitch, we wanted to hit hard lengths and the bowling was as good as we could have hoped for. We spoke long and hard before the final about tactics.

“I’m a bit old-fashioned in that I like to have wickets in hand, be more circumspect up front, especially at the DP World Wanderers where the ball does a bit. A lot of people think the first six overs are the most important, but I think the last six are.

“Aiming for around 40 in the powerplay has served us well. We might have to do it differently next season, but with this group of players it was the right formula. We also worked hard on batting well in the middle overs, running the ones and twos, being smart, and we also had to cut down on the extras in the field,” the delighted Domingo said.

Duan Jansen continues to thrive on the pacy and bouncy SuperSport Park pitch as he took a superb four for 23 on Saturday to bowl his new SA20 franchise, the Joburg Super Kings, to a 22-run victory over the Pretoria Capitals in game two of Season 4 of the T20 extravaganza.

Having moved from the Dragons in Potchefstroom to play for the Titans, Jansen has been their best bowler in a troubled season, and he brought the same form to the neighbouring franchise, taking wickets in his second, third and fourth overs to destroy a good Pretoria Capitals foundation and achieve his best-ever figures in T20 cricket.

After winning the toss, the Capitals had bowled well to limit the Joburg Super Kings to 168 for six and then looked set to romp to victory as openers Will Smeed (34 off 30) and Bryce Parsons (41 off 30) put on 71 for the first wicket in nine overs.

The Super Kings turned to spin to make the breakthrough, accurate orthodox left-armer Akeal Hosein (3-0-19-1) bowling Smeed after deceiving him in the flight, but then they turned to their two extremely tall fast bowlers, Jansen and Janco Smit, both of whom play their domestic cricket for the Titans, based at SuperSport Park.

Prolific West Indian Shai Hope (2 off 6) tried to drive Jansen on the up, an extremely difficult thing to do on bouncy pitches, and was predictably caught at mid-on. Dewald Brevis then came in wanting to express himself and struck a boundary off his first ball, but Smit then had him caught behind for six, gloving a hook at a short-pitched delivery.

Jansen then quickly killed off the Pretoria Capitals chase as he added the wickets of Parsons, Connor Esterhuizen (2) and Daniel Smith (9), the latter two both bowled.

From 71 for none, the Capitals crashed to 89 for five and in the end limped to 146 for nine in their 20 overs to at least deny the Super Kings a bonus point.

Wiaan Mulder also did a fine job with his medium-pace (4-0-22-1) and Richard Gleeson (4-0-33-2) wrapped things up with two wickets.

Faf du Plessis, now 41 years old, had confidently taken first strike after his Super Kings had been sent in to bat, but he was unceremoniously put on his backside by the second delivery, Tymal Mills jagging a short lifter back into him and striking him on the gloves and arm.

Jansen went on to say that although they did not like to see their captain treated like that, it left the Joburg pace quartet licking their lips.

“Watching from the side, we loved that second ball Tymal Mills bowled to Faf. Although we were sorry for him, we were also definitely smiling as a bowling unit because we could see there was assistance for us – bounce, swing and pace.

“We knew that even if Pretoria got a good start, we just needed to get the first wicket and then you can get two or three more on the bounce. That changed the whole momentum of the innings and we knew we just needed to be patient and calm.

“It’s a big advantage for me and Janco, who I thought bowled well too, to be playing our first game here at Centurion. My season has been good so far and knowing the conditions settled my nerves playing for a new franchise,” Jansen said.

Joburg were in early trouble as openers Matthew de Villiers (13 off 10) and Du Plessis (2 off 8) both fell with the score on 16 within five balls of each other. But Rilee Rossouw (48 off 33) and Mulder (44 off 28) added 78 for the third wicket in the next nine overs, doing a great job of ensuring the visitors had a competitive score.

Hosein’s 22 not out off 10 balls at the death, with two sixes, took the total to 168 for six.

“The pitch was a bit tricky and spicy, but the maturity Rilee and Wiaan showed to just hang in there and build a partnership was the reason we got a decent total. We felt we probably left ourselves 15 runs light considering how they batted. That partnership was key, and then with the ball we fought and worked hard for a scrappy win,” Du Plessis said.

Left-armer Mills was superb as he dismissed De Villiers and Rossouw to have two for six in three overs, before conceding 10 runs in the last over of the innings; and his new-ball partner Codi Yusuf supported him very well with two for 29 in his four overs.

Pretoria Capitals only had three frontline pacemen, however, and Lungi Ngidi went wicketless and conceded 43 runs, but probably bowled a little better than those figures suggest.

But the other three members of the home attack were all spinners, at a venue notoriously difficult for spin bowlers. While captain Keshav Maharaj (4-0-31-0) bowled well, Roston Chase and Parsons conceded 46 runs in their combined four overs.

Parsons at least picked up the wickets of Mulder and Donavan Ferreira (9), but Pretoria Capitals would have been better off choosing another pace bowling option. Andre Russell would be the obvious candidate, but he hasn’t arrived yet from the International League T20 in the UAE.