Ken Borland

There’s a kind of maturity and boosted confidence that comes from having experienced playing at the highest level and one can tell the DP World Lions’ young star Karabo Meso has come back from her debut stint with the Proteas even better equipped to be a major contributor for the Pride going forward.

The 16-year-old Meso played in the recent series against Sri Lanka that was hosted in South Africa and, while her playing opportunities were limited to two T20s and a lengthy stint behind the stumps in the third ODI as a replacement for the injured Sinalo Jafta, she still had plenty of stories to share.

“Eish, it is a different level, especially in terms of how everything is managed. Being able to do things together with the other Proteas, you can see how those players manage their space. I could see how they get ready before a game, how they are the day before and how they are after the match,” Meso said.

“I was really happy to be there and I was able to learn lots of stuff. Experience-wise, while I was not playing I was able to sit with the coaches and just talk about the game. It was a great experience to have at a young age and I think I handled it nicely with all the support I had and my grounding at the DP World Lions,” Meso said.

Marizanne Kapp is one of South Africa’s all-time greats, but at 34 years old, she is very much part of a different generation to Meso. Kapp made her international debut back in 2009, when fax machines were still being used, but Meso and the veteran all-rounder were still able to connect.

“I was scared at first, but it was a very welcoming team,” Meso said of the Proteas. “I was able to sit with different players and I learnt a lot chatting to them. Like Marizanne, most people think she’s quite scary but she’s not, she’s actually very nice.

“I thought I wouldn’t be able to talk to her, but I ended up drinking coffee with her and she told me all about her first game and her experiences as a Protea, at the Big Bash and just how she manages her life.”

The Soweto resident was thrown into the deep end in the ODI series decider against Sri Lanka, having to replace fellow DP World Lions star Jafta behind the stumps in the closing stages. There were obviously nerves, but Meso bundled together all the advice and support she had received from her team-mates to handle herself with aplomb.

“It was quite an ODI intro! Things happen quickly at that level and you have to show that you are ready, no matter what. You have to be switched on, even though you’re not playing,” Meso said.

But being ready is a quality Meso has shown in abundance with the DP World Lions; coach Shaun Pretorius has never had to babysit her even though she made her debut when she was just a child.

“Karabo is a phenomenally good cricketer, especially mentally, her cricket understanding is so good. We forget that she was just 13 when she debuted for the Pride and she has grown a lot,” Pretorius said.

“She has such maturity and a really good head on her shoulders. She is strong-minded, firm in her belief in her game-plans and how she operates. Karabo wears her heart on her sleeve and whatever she does on the field she does with pride.

“She’s definitely one of the upcoming stars of the DP World Lions and Proteas set-ups and her recent success is testament to all the hard work Karabo has put in.

“But most importantly she is just such a good human being, you just want to be in her space and feed off her energy and positivity. We are all very proud of Karabo at the DP World Lions,” Pretorius said.

We are indeed.

The cricket season just past has seen Wiaan Mulder freed from his cell of self-imposed pressure and doubt, and the Central Gauteng Lions all-rounder’s reward has been a return to the Proteas T20 squad, albeit for the warm-up series against the West Indies in Jamaica at the end of this month and not the World Cup.

The Lions were the outstanding domestic team of the summer, winning both the four-day competition and the CSA T20 Challenge that ended last weekend in a final at the Wanderers, with the Gautengers easing past the KZN Dolphins by seven wickets with 14 balls to spare.

Mulder was at the forefront of that successful chase, blazing his way to a ferocious 55 not out off just 26 balls, with four sixes. It capped a superb tournament for the 26-year-old, who scored 248 runs at an average of 35.42 and a strike-rate of 139.32. Mulder also took 11 wickets and conceded just 7.10 runs-per-over, making him the only player to appear in the top-20 of both the batting and bowling averages.

It followed his destructive performances in the SA20 league, where he scored 297 runs at an average of 37.13 and a strike-rate of 157.14 for Durban Super Giants.

In the Lions’ triumphant four-day campaign, Mulder was their leading run-scorer with 549 at 54.90, which included a couple of centuries. He also claimed 16 wickets at an average of 26.50.

Little wonder then that the Proteas have come calling again. He played in the ODI series against India last December, but Mulder is set to play his first T20 international since September 2021 in Sri Lanka.

But in a candid interview before his selection was announced this week, Mulder admitted that he had not made the most of his previous Proteas call-ups.

“The biggest thing for me at international level is mental. I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself, which is made worse when you think every game could be my last,” Mulder said after the Lions’ T20 triumph.

“I do my best when I am just given the freedom to go out and play; unfortunately I’m an over-thinker and then I try too hard and get a bit down on myself. I’ve done relatively well with the ball for the Proteas, but I haven’t really shown what I can do with the bat. But maybe my time will come in the next couple of years,” Mulder said.

The all-rounder’s mantle is a tough one to bear in South African cricket because we have been blessed with arguably the greatest of them all – Jacques Kallis – as well as a succession of legends who could both win matches with the bat and double as a proper fast bowler: Mike Procter, Clive Rice, Kallis, Lance Klusener and Shaun Pollock have spoilt us.

Mulder does not bowl express pace, but he is a very handy practitioner who can fulfil a variety of roles. The St Stithians product says the presence of another great – Allan Donald – on the Lions coaching staff has helped him enormously in terms of growing his skills and even becoming a little quicker.

“Allan Donald has been massive for us and for me personally. I’ve been working with him to get more energy behind the ball, being able to bowl back-of-the-hand deliveries. It’s difficult bowling in the powerplay at the Wanderers, the ball really flies here, so I’ve had to up-skill a lot.

“I feel like I’m bowling well and it’s nice to be consistently bowling. Not bowling five matches in a row in the SA20 gets a little frustrating,” Mulder said.

The up-skilling Mulder has done on his batting will also hopefully pay off at international level.

“Russell Domingo [head coach] said there were certain things that have to get better in our game and there was an expectation to up-skill. There was a lot of hard work in the transition period after he became coach.

“And you could see when Reeza Hendricks and I were batting together in the final, we made sure the required rate never ran away from us even though we weren’t hitting boundaries. We were getting the ones and twos and making sure there were no dot-balls,” Mulder said.

“I am very proud of the way we bounced back, it showed that we have learnt from our mistakes,” chuffed DP World Lions captain Bjorn Fortuin said shortly after lifting the CSA T20 Challenge trophy following their commanding seven-wicket win with 14 balls to spare over the HollywoodBets Dolphins in Johannesburg on Sunday.

While the margin of victory was ultimately comfortable, there were tough periods in the game that our Pride had to overcome. The Dolphins dominated the last five overs of their batting innings to post a competitive 165 for eight, and the DP World Lions had lost three wickets by the halfway stage of their chase.

But just as Fortuin (4-0-24-2) and Codi Yusuf (4-1-16-2) stepped up with the ball, Reeza Hendricks and Wiaan Mulder made light of the situation with the bat, plundering a tremendous unbeaten 85 runs for the fourth wicket off just 48 balls.

Hendricks played the perfect anchoring role, facing the first ball of the innings and batting through to the end to finish with a wonderful 73 not out off 52 balls, including three sixes. Mulder blasted a fiery 55 not out off just 26 balls, with four sixes.

“All of the squad have been responsible for us winning at some stage,” Fortuin said. “It’s nice to see the younger players developing alongside all the very established players we have.

“The Dolphins batted well after we made it difficult for them at the start, but with our batting line-up, I know if we restrict the opposition to anything close to par, then I’m confident we will chase it down.”

Hendricks and Mulder showed their experience and class during their partnership, when another wicket for the Dolphins could have made for an awkward finish for the #PrideOfJozi. After Ryan Rickelton (18 off 13) and Hendricks had rushed the DP World Lions to 50 in five-and-a-half overs, the Dolphins struck back with three wickets and did not concede another boundary in the next fifty runs.

But vitally, they could not buy another wicket.

“They really kept us honest in the middle and it was important for me to try and bat deep,” Hendricks said. “It was also important to bat well up front and lay a platform, and we did that between Ryan and myself. One of the top four then had to bat through and today it just happened to be me. At the DP World Wanderers Stadium, you want to take it as deep as possible because with wickets in hand, you can always score well in the last five overs.

“We did slow down after the powerplay, but we really needed to make sure we didn’t lose another wicket. Wiaan then came in and played an unbelievable knock, it changed the momentum and put the Dolphins under pressure,” Hendricks said.

Yusuf did a superb job with the ball in the final over, removing both the set batsmen, Jason Smith (51) and Eathan Bosch (17), and he was impressively cheap, going for just four runs an over in his four-over quota.

“Codi has been massive for us. He was in and out of the team at the beginning of the competition and it is tough for a youngster to be mentally up for it when you get dropped after one game and then come back in and are expected to produce. He has a bright future and he’s not just a white-ball bowler,” captain Fortuin said.

Fortuin himself capped an outstanding season with his telling contribution, ending the competition as the second most economical bowler with a run-rate of just 5.85. The left-arm spinner was only fractionally behind Imraan Manack of Boland (5.83).

Rickelton (441) ended as the second-highest run-scorer, with Hendricks just one run behind, while leg-spinner Nqaba Peter, who bowled three tidy overs before getting some punishment in his fourth on Sunday, took the second-most wickets.

You can’t buy the sort of composure and experience that wins big games of cricket and DP World Lions coach Russell Domingo is confident that our star players will stand up and lead the way for the #PrideOfJozi when they host Sunday’s CSA T20 Challenge final against the HollywoodBets Dolphins.

Our DP World Lions breezed through their semi-final against derby rivals the Titans with a performance of great calm and quality, and Domingo expects the same mental strength to be on show against the Dolphins.

Proteas stars Rassie van der Dussen and Temba Bavuma were at the crease at the end steering our Pride to victory with the bat, with another international, Ryan Rickelton, setting the tone up front with his innings. Throw in the strong contributions through the tournament made by Wiaan Mulder, Bjorn Fortuin and Reeza Hendricks, and it is easy to see that the DP World Lions environment is a brilliant one, making it easy for youngsters like Nqaba Peter, Lutho Sipamla and Codi Yusuf to shine as well.

“It was a really good performance against the Titans,” Domingo agrees. “Semi-finals are often nerve-wracking, they can be harder to handle than the final itself. But we kept calm and composed.

“There is always a lot of expectation on us because we topped the log and we have a very good side, and in T20 cricket anything is possible. It was a really solid performance in the semi-final, but we cannot rest on our laurels.

“Rassie is scoring runs where it counts, he showed really good intensity against the Titans, and Temba is also playing well, I can see a big score just around the corner for him. You want your big names to perform in the big games and we will have to be close to our best to beat the Dolphins.

“But the big names are the guys who know under pressure that you don’t have to play 100% perfect cricket, you just need to play solid, do the basics really well, and stay calm and disciplined,” Domingo said.

The KwaZulu-Natal Coastal visitors will be bringing a team with experienced and canny campaigners of their own, and a powerful bowling attack, even without T20 ace Ottneil Baartman, who has joined Delhi Capitals in the IPL.

“They have a formidable pace attack with Okuhle Cele, Daryn Dupavillon and Andile Phehlukwayo, and a quality spinner in Prenelan Subrayen. They are also a very street-smart side, they know what it takes to win. Jason Smith, Khaya Zondo and Jon-Jon Smuts are also a key trio of very experienced players,” Domingo said.

But our Pride are playing at home at the DP World Wanderers Stadium and have only lost two of their eight matches there this campaign. And they beat the Dolphins there at the start of the month in their round-robin match, Yusuf and Rickelton leading them to victory by seven wickets with four balls to spare in a rain-shortened match.

Rickelton, Van der Dussen and Hendricks all feature in the top-12 of the tournament averages and have consistently given the DP World Lions solid starts. Delano Potgieter and Evan Jones are the six-hitters at the end of the innings and it is all brought together by Mulder, who is also in the top-20 of the averages and strikes at 126.97.

Leg-spinner Peter has been the outstanding bowler of the competition with 19 wickets in only nine matches, and has bowled with such potency that he averages just 7.78 and has twice taken four wickets in an innings, and also with such control that he has only conceded 5.19 runs-per-over.

Mulder has also been tight and effective with the ball, and that has allowed tremendous flexibility in terms of bowling options. Sipamla, Jones, Yusuf and Fortuin have served as a wonderful bowling unit, taking 55 wickets between them. Seamers Sipamla, Jones and Yusuf are all conceding little more than 7.5 runs-per-over, while Fortuin is the second-most economical bowler in the competition, at 5.84.

Our DP World Lions have quality through their line-up and their strengths cover whatever conditions or match situations are thrown at them. They are primed to peak under the pressure of Sunday’s final.