Ken Borland

South Africa captain Temba Bavuma says the success of their Champions Trophy campaign hangs on how well they bat in good batting conditions in Pakistan.

And the Proteas skipper is heartened by the good form most of his batsmen have shown in the ongoing SA20, which concludes on February 8, nearly two weeks before they open their Champions Trophy campaign against Afghanistan in Karachi on February 21.

David Miller has not only captained Paarl Royals to the top of the log and a place in the playoffs already, he is averaging 91.50 with the bat at a strike-rate of 134. Rassie van der Dussen is averaging 50.40 for MI Cape Town, while his opening partner Ryan Rickelton has been restricted to just four innings due to a hamstring strain, but has passed 50 twice in that time.

Aiden Markram is leading from the front for Sunrisers Eastern Cape, averaging 40.50 at a strike-rate of 138, while all-rounder Marco Jansen averages 32.80 at a strike-rate of 131 for the same team.

Even key finisher Heinrich Klaasen found some form in his last game as he plundered 66 off 43 balls for Durban Super Giants against high-flying MI Cape Town at Newlands.

Miller (6^th), Van der Dussen (3^rd), Rickelton (7^th), Markram (4^th) and Jansen (10^th) are in the top-10 run-scorers list.

“I’m really glad that the core of our batting line-up is doing well in the SA20. In Pakistan we should get friendly pitches for batting, so you need in-form batsmen so that you can take control of matches over there,” Bavuma told sportsboom.co.za.

Interviewed as one of the celebrity guests for a South African Breweries function, Bavuma did, however, admit that the loss of several high-profile Proteas bowlers to injury was concerning. Gerald Coetzee, Anrich Nortje and Daryn Dupavillon, who has played two ODIs, were all recently ruled out of the SA20 tournament, while Nandre Burger, Lizaad Williams and Beuran Hendricks were all forced to withdraw before the event started.

Lungi Ngidi last played on January 18 and has been surrounded by a fitness cloud for most of the summer. He and Nortje were both named in South Africa’s original Champions Trophy squad. No replacement has yet been named for Nortje, with coach Rob Walter hoping Coetzee will recover in time from his hamstring strain.

“There are more question marks over the bowling, but obviously injuries are part of the game,” Bavuma said. “Bowling has always been our strength and you want to be in the position where you can select from everyone. But I have a lot of pride in this team that they always find a way, even if they have to do it the hard way. These sort of injury questions are nothing new.”

Bavuma is probably entitled to feel it will all be okay once they hit the big stage in Pakistan due to the tenacity his team have shown previously. After a torrid start to the World Test Championship, they have regrouped and qualified for the final against Australia in June.

“That this team always seems to find a way speaks to the character and environment in the squad, you are allowed to be yourselves. There have been lots of positives in the last year and the team has been successful in making the Test final.

“We ticked that box, that is a step in the right direction, but we are not at the end of our journey, we still want to achieve more. But we’ve shown we can win away from home, even though we are an inexperienced side. It’s about managing the space. The youngsters have stepped up, the way they have reacted has definitely contributed to our success.

“We obviously want to continue in that vein, but we want to be a lot more disciplined because that will lead to excellence,” Bavuma said.

The Proteas will be able to ready themselves for the Champions Trophy in an ODI tri-series with Pakistan and New Zealand in Lahore and Karachi from February 8.

DP World Lions captain Dominic Hendricks has been able to massage away the disappointments of last season with a great accumulation of runs so far in the 2024/25 CSA 4-Day Series campaign, helping his team to the top of the standings as they go into their Christmas break.

Hendricks has scored 350 runs in seven innings this season, averaging 58.33 with one century and two fifties, all of those coming in testing batting conditions at the DP World Wanderers Stadium. His 161 not out against World Sports Betting Western Province was an epic innings spanning more than nine hours and 370 deliveries, setting up a 125-run victory. The left-handed opener then followed that up with a tenacious 89 against the Dafabet Warriors, again playing a pivotal role in a win by a massive 200 runs. He was named man of the match on both occasions.

Those back-to-back triumphs by the DP World Lions completed a hat-trick of wins at their home fortress and they top the standings with 83.96 points from four matches. The defending champions are more than 30 points ahead of the Renault North-West Dragons and the Free State Knights.

“Last season I struggled a bit, but this season I’ve really focused on being in my bubble and getting the opposition to bowl at me,” Hendricks says. “I’m not straying from my game-plan and I’m keeping things as simple as possible. I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel.

“It’s been very intense, very tough cricket at the DP World Wanderers because of how tricky the pitch has been. But we’ve done really well at home and fortunately we’ve had most of our fixtures there so far. We play four of our seven fixtures at home this season, so that’s a nice advantage. Ideally, we would like to make the DP World Wanderers our home fortress.

“We’re sitting pretty in the standings at the moment, but we can’t be complacent when we come back to four-day cricket in March. We’ll need to carry on from where we left off. We’ve bowled really well and most of the guys have been in the runs as well. We’ve shown how good we can be, and when we return there’ll be more opportunities for the guys to produce man-of-the-match plays,” Hendricks says.

The pitch for the last game, the convincing win over the Warriors, was one of the toughest DP World Wanderers surfaces the 34-year-old stalwart has come across. But the batting effort showed the character of both the captain and his team-mates.

“I was really surprised by how much movement there was right through the game,” Hendricks says. “There was actually too much movement and visiting teams often don’t know how to bowl on DP World Wanderers pitches like that. The margin of error is always small and they tend to bowl a little too short, while we are a touch fuller.

“But the conditions evolve and as the pitch becomes better for batting, so the right length changes, it can go from four to six metres. Our bowlers have been really good at adapting and they’ve taken the feedback from the batsmen as to where to bowl to make it most difficult.

“The bowlers also did a phenomenal job in Potchefstroom where conditions became very batting friendly after the new ball. They kept them to less than three runs an over for more than 100 overs, which shows their skill,” Hendricks said.

Another member of #ThePrideOfJozi who has shown his talents to great effect has been young Muhammad Manack. The 22-year-old came in at first wicket down against Western Province in the second over of the match and added 108 for the second wicket with Hendricks, while scoring a career-best 64. Against the Warriors, he came to the crease in the seventh over and added 78 with his skipper in the first innings and then made 49 in the second innings, coming in in the 10^th over and adding 64 with Josh Richards.

“Mo has certainly not looked like a duck out of water, he’s taken to that crucial number three position really well,” Hendricks says. “He made his debut last season, playing just one game while I was away for a wedding, but he immediately looked like he fits in. he’s worked really hard, but unfortunately there have not been that many opportunities for him, which is a tricky situation for a youngster.

“But he’s definitely shown he belongs, he’s a really compact, nice number three. Neil McKenzie always used to say that numbers one to three are the engine room of the team, you want your number four walking in with 40 overs bowled and ready to dominate.

“I really enjoy batting with the younger guys. At training you can know a player to a certain extent, but that’s not real pressure. So it was great to see how Mo handled himself out in the middle under pressure and how he went about his business. He’s very soft-spoken, but his temperament really stood out,” Hendricks says.

Our DP World Lions began their CSA T20 Challenge campaign with a painful defeat on their home turf against the Momentum Multiply Titans; but on Tuesday night they massaged that pain away with a comprehensive victory over their Gauteng neighbours, winning Qualifier 1 by seven wickets with four overs to spare to go directly into Sunday’s final.

It was an excellent all-round performance at the DP World Wanderers Stadium by #ThePrideOfJozi, with the bowlers doing a great job by bowling the Titans out for just 115, and then the batsmen, led by the ever-reliable Reeza Hendricks, cruised to 116 for three after 16 overs.

A good decision at the toss by skipper Bjorn Fortuin to bowl first because there was a bit of life in the pitch saw the DP World Lions take advantage as they reduced the Titans to 19 for three in the first four overs. Young Kwena Maphaka was once again superb as he took two of those three wickets, and then returned to claim a third in the penultimate over, finishing with figures of 4-1-11-3, the joint most economical in the competition this season.

Delano Potgieter was also excellent up front with one for 22 in his four overs, figures replicated by the other main all-rounder in the team, Evan Jones. Leg-spinner Nqaba Peter then wrapped up the innings with an outstanding return of 4-1-15-4, bamboozling and bowling both Donovan Ferreira and Dayyaan Galiem with his trademark sliders.

The loss of Zubayr Hamza (4) caught at cover in the third over, caused barely a pause for thought in the DP World Lions reply as Hendricks played a marvellous innings. The Proteas star looked comfortable on a pitch that always had something in it for the bowlers, stroking 61 off 43 balls, with seven fours and two sixes. Hendricks fell, trapped lbw by a Galiem off-cutter, just four runs short of becoming the highest ever run-scorer in the history of this competition: He moved to 3180 runs in 106 innings and Morne van Wyk’s record of 3183 runs in 113 innings will surely be surpassed in Sunday’s final.

The vastly experienced Rassie van der Dussen also played a fine innings as he stayed to the end, scoring 40 not out off 37 deliveries, with four fours. He added 92 off 69 balls for the second wicket with Hendricks.

Just as they did last season when they won the CSA T20 Challenge, our DP World Lions seem to saving their best cricket for the playoff rounds.

“We couldn’t really have asked for anything better tonight,” Hendricks said. “The bowlers set the tone, restricting the Titans to a good score for us, and then we were clinical with the bat to finish things off. So we are happy with the performance and hopefully we can repeat it on Sunday.

“It was a really good game by us after we had a bit of a stumble against Western Province last week, and hopefully we are peaking at the right time again. It gives us a great deal of confidence to beat this strong Titans outfit, but whoever we play on Sunday is going to come out firing against us,” Hendricks said.

Our DP World Lions men’s team has only had to endure the bitter taste of defeat twice in this CSA T20 Challenge campaign, without playing their best cricket yet, which speaks to their ability to get the job done in tight situations.

They were at it again at the weekend when they beat the Auto Investments North-West Dragons by five runs in Potchefstroom to ensure they finished top of the log and will host Qualifier 1 at the DP World Wanderers Stadium on Tuesday evening. Win that and we go straight through to Sunday’s final, defeat would mean a second chance when they take on the winners of Wednesday’s Eliminator between the Dragons and WSB Western Province.

The DP World Lions were defending a total of 170 for three against the Dragons, built around a classy 59 off 38 balls by the veteran No.3 Rassie van der Dussen and a punishing 62 not out off 39 deliveries by young Connor Esterhuizen, who was the Batsman of the Match.

North-West were then restricted to 165 for six in their 20 overs, #ThePrideOfJozi attack once again producing the goods, even when the home side needed 27 runs off the last three overs. Evan Jones kept his nerve as he conceded just nine runs off the last over, but it was the thrilling left-arm paceman Kwena Maphaka who produced the matchwinning over as he conceded just three runs in the penultimate over.

Maphaka had earlier bowled both Dragons openers with superb deliveries as he finished with excellent figures of two for 28 in his four overs and the Bowler of the Match award. Tshepo Moreki also took two wickets, while spinners Nqaba Peter and Reeza Hendricks kept things tight with five overs between them going for just 29 runs.

“We’re finding ways to win, even though we haven’t played our best cricket yet. We’re coming out on top in those big moments and to finish top of the table was a good feat,” happy head coach Russell Domingo said.

“Connor has a lot of potential, he’s only 23 and hasn’t played a lot of cricket. I have plenty of hope for both him and Mitchell van Buuren, they can be very, very good players. And then it’s great to have Rassie’s calmness coming in at three.”

Our DP World Lions’ opponents on Tuesday evening will be the Momentum Multiply Titans, a team that will boast several players who have really mastered the T20 format. The fact that the Titans beat the Pride by 117 runs in our home den in the opening round of the competition, and yet the DP World Lions still ended up topping the standings, illustrates their tremendous resilience.

“The past will have no bearing on the Qualifier, it’s a one-off match between two teams who have some seriously good matchwinners. We take real confidence in the way we played after that first game,” Domingo said.