Ken Borland

What is more important in T20 knockout cricket? The exuberance of youth or the grizzled experience of veteran players? Joburg Super Kings captain Faf du Plessis said he backs experience as his team headed into the Eliminator in the SA20 tournament.

The 40-year-old Du Plessis leads a Joburg Super Kings outfit into battle against Sunrisers Eastern Cape, who have finished top of the tree in the first two editions of the SA20, at Centurion on Wednesday. And many of his fellow axemen looking to fell the defending champions are also stalwarts of the game.

First-choice spinner Imran Tahir is, astonishingly, 45 years old and still going strong, while all-rounders David Wiese and Moeen Ali are 39 and 37 respectively, wicketkeeper/batsman Jonny Bairstow and fast bowler Hardus Viljoen are both 35, spinner Tabraiz Shamsi 34, and batsmen Devon Conway, Leus du Plooy and Wihan Lubbe are all over 30.

“I would prefer to have experience,” Du Plessis told sportsboom.co.za at SuperSport Park on Tuesday, “as I said at the beginning of the tournament, teams that win these leagues generally have older players.

“The trend around the world was for explosive, fearless youngsters, but now teams are seeing the value of experience and cool heads. People are calling us Dad’s Army but we call ourselves The Replacements from the movie – we are the has-beens, those written off – and we’ve put us all together and possibly managed to get the best out of all of us.

“We’ve done okay, nothing amazing yet, but we just make sure we don’t repeat the same mistakes and this game is all about who makes the better decisions. And I just want to add that the two oldest are myself and Immie [Tahir] and we’re both still standing!” Du Plessis grinned.

Bairstow, Conway and Du Plessis have all had very good campaigns with the bat, while Tahir has conceded just 6.29 runs-per-over. Du Plessis paid special tribute to pacemen Viljoen and Lutho Sipamla, who have both taken a dozen wickets, for the way they have come to the fore after an injury crisis struck the bowling attack.

“We’ve lost five bowlers to injury but guys have stepped up and it’s been remarkable what Lutho and Hardus have done. They were back-ups, down the pecking order, but they have stepped up into big situations on the big occasion on a great stage.

“Lutho is very mature, he has an incredible head on his shoulders and he has a bright white-ball future. I saw him in his early days for the Proteas, when he was rated as more of a red-ball prospect. But there’s a lot there for the Proteas in all aspects of the game. He can take the new ball and get wickets up front, or bowl in the middle and bring that skill-set as well,” Du Plessis said.

But the Joburg Super Kings have suffered another injury blow as the SA20 heads into its final week of festivities. Key finisher Donovan Ferreira, who pulled a muscle during his sensational innings of 51 off 22 balls against the Durban Super Giants last weekend, will not be fit for the Eliminator.

Du Plessis almost said it was his par-time off-spin bowling, which has been unusually successful this season, that would be missed more than his batting.

“Donovan is injured, add him to the list, and it’s not great for our balance. Every injury we’ve had seems to have brought added difficulty in terms of one change forcing a second. He’s been particularly good with the ball, both offensively and defensively. I’m going to miss his overs and his golden arm, and coming off a knock like that which shows what he’s capable of in a finishing role, I’m sure he’s feeling confident with the bat and would like to do more,” Du Plessis said.

Dewald Brevis has a phenomenal talent for batting destruction, but in terms of character he seems a prim and proper, respectful young man who backs himself to the hilt, but is also not getting ahead of himself.

Importantly, he always seems to play with a chuffed smile on his face, and that grin was as broad as the bat with which he plundered 13 sixes during his incredible innings of 162 off only 57 balls, breaking all sorts of records, for the Northerns Titans against Free State Knights in the CSA T20 Challenge in Potchefstroom.

A more emphatic statement of proof that the 19-year-old is the genuine real deal could not have been made. While Brevis believed last year already that he was ready to play for the Proteas, he understood the need for him to go through the journey of dominating at senior level after being player of the tournament in the U19 World Cup earlier this year, with a record tally of runs.

“Playing in this tournament is an important part of learning my game, I have to do this, it’s part of my journey. I’m at the right place, where I need to be, scoring thirties and forties was part of my development,” Brevis said after exploding into the limelight.

“Everything is built up, every match is part of learning your game, and what’s important is that this innings was the next stepping stone. The people in control [of national selection] know best and it will work out as it should.”

Brevis is the quintessential modern T20 superstar. His magnificent ball-striking and confidence to back himself from ball one fits in perfectly with where the shortest international format is heading, plus he offers dangerous leg-spin bowling, the hardest craft to master but one in which he already shows much promise. And he is a superb fielder – he capped his unbelievable innings with a brilliantly-judged boundary catch against the Knights.

“The tougher the conditions, the better I am. I’m always trying to be positive, you must take the first three balls of an over on, don’t wait until the last three because then the bowler is on top.

“You have to allow good balls as well, there always will be good balls, but you must try and score ones off them. I’m trying to score off every ball,” Brevis said.

After the current T20 World Cup, we will surely see Brevis take his talent to the international stage.

Sharks hooker Bongi Mbonambi said not allowing outside influences to affect the inside of the team, and pulling together to make sure there were consistent energy levels between the forwards and backs, were the main things they needed to improve on from their loss to the Stormers if they are to beat the Bulls in their United Rugby Championship match in Pretoria on Saturday.

But are there any other things the Sharks need to do to make sure they do the business against the Bulls?

1. They need to start much better.

Especially playing away from home, as they were last weekend and will be at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, they cannot afford to allow the home team to settle and dictate the run of play. But the Sharks seemed somehow distracted and not fully focused on the task at hand against a fired-up Stormers side. The Sharks lacked energy and intensity in the opening exchanges, which perhaps contributed to several handling errors. It meant they struggled to gain any momentum.

2. They need secure, more consistent set-pieces.

Solid set-piece displays were a feature of the Sharks’ impressive win in Johannesburg a fortnight ago and their scrummaging was outstanding against the Stormers in Durban, although they still allowed their opponents to sneak the draw. But in Cape Town, they gave away crucial scrum penalties and were untidy at key moments in the lineouts. Their woes in Pretoria recently have started up front and they cannot afford to give the Bulls an advantage in the set-pieces.

3. They need to fix their breakdown work.

You can tell the opposition have enjoyed a field day at the rucks when their openside flank gets man of the match as Deon Fourie did in Cape Town. The Sharks conceded turnovers and penalties at the breakdown at vital moments, which needs to be rectified. Their lack of organisation and/or accuracy at the breakdown is also having a telling effect on their attacking efforts because they are not securing enough quick ball.

4. They need to sort out their personnel at flyhalf and inside centre.

Although he is a quality player, moving Lukhanyo Am to inside centre seems to have adulterated their backline, with his defensive organisation sorely missed at outside centre. Bringing Marius Louw back into the No.12 jersey would allow Am to have his usual impact at No.13, but flyhalf is also a troubling position for the Sharks. What Tito Bonilla brought on attack was undone by his defensive lapses.

Connacht, aided by the wind at their backs, broke free in the second half of their United Rugby Championship match against the Bulls at The SportsGround in Galway to turn a 10-7 halftime lead into a thumping 34-7 win on Friday night.

While the Bulls certainly rattled the home side in the first half, scoring first and causing their defence many anxious moments, their inability to adapt at the breakdowns and their inaccuracy in that key department gave Connacht too much free turnover ball and the Irish side were slick in capitalising. The Bulls were too quick to go off their feet at the rucks and were heavily penalised.

“We had enough chances in the first half and in the second half we were up against it because they understand how to play here with the wind pumping and the rain coming down, we struggled to get up the hill, there’s a significant rise and a slope down there in the corner where we got trapped,” Bulls coach Jake White said after the game.

“But we’ve got to adapt, there were a couple of calls that went against us, they had the rub of the green like winning a vital toss in cricket, but we turned ball over in our own half.

“It’s all about learning how to adapt to another environment, it’s as simple as that. The reality is we were not good in conditions that did not suit us, we weren’t accurate, we lost a lot of ball at the back of rucks.

“We’re away from home and we just have to learn and find a way to win. You could see the spring in Connacht’s step when they were 10-7 up at halftime and they knew we had not done enough in the first half,” White said.

Frustrated by how often they were penalised at the attacking breakdown, the Bulls called into service the box-kick in the second half, but that did not go well as Connacht counter-attacked superbly through elusive wing Mack Hansen and powerhouse inside centre Tom Daly.

A dreadful basic error early in the second half by scrumhalf Zak Burger at the base of a scrum put Connacht immediately on attack and Daly muscled over for a try. But the killer blow came in the 49^th minute when Hansen scored off a kick with a brilliant mazy run. There was a hint of obstruction in the try, but the officials allowed it to stand after watching replays, having ruled out a Connacht try in the first half for a marginal forward pass.

“Marcell Coetzee did ask the referee and some might argue that Lizo Gqoboka was obstructed. But we don’t want to be box-kicking and giving the ball away.

“We’ve got to find other ways to score points and not just rely on that and getting calls at scrums and mauls. But it’s so tough over here and at times we played really well, but our decision-making and accuracy needs to be better, especially on our carries and at the breakdown,” White said.

Scorers

Connacht – Tries: Tiernan O’ Halloran, Tom Daly (2), Mack Hansen, Tom Farrell. Conversions: Jack Carty (3). Penalty: Carty.

Bulls – Try: Lizo Gqoboka. Conversion: Johan Goosen.