Ken Borland

This summer’s premier T20 tournament may be confined to a bubble in Gqeberha, but there has still been space for some highly entertaining, impressive cricket in the first week of the CSA T20 Challenge.

The eight provinces have all played twice and the Boland Rocks and Free State Knights are the only teams who have not yet won a game. Overall it has been a highly competitive event, with Boland coming agonisingly close to beating the Northerns Titans.

The North-West Dragons, with the only bonus point so far, and Western Province are the two sides who have won both their matches, but the gap between them and the KZN Dolphins, Central Gauteng Lions, Northerns and Eastern Province Warriors is not large.

The Lions get the chance to show that on Sunday when they take on WP.

Looking at the bigger picture, and a future that includes another T20 World Cup in October/November in Australia, who are the players that the national selectors will be keeping an eye on?

One first needs to ask where are the gaps in the current Proteas team, who performed better than expected in the previous T20 World Cup, albeit in conditions that will be very different to Australia.

The well-travelled David Miller has world-class T20 stats – he averaged 47 last year at a strike-rate of 149 – and is a certainty for Australia, but there is hopefully space in the squad for another finisher, someone who can be groomed to succeed the 32-year-old somewhere down the line.

Two youngsters who have caught the eye are the 21-year-old Tristan Stubbs of EP and 23-year-old Donovan Ferreira of the Titans. They are scoring at a strike-rate of 189 and 152 respectively in this tournament, while Stubbs has a career strike-rate of 148 and Ferreira 157.

The Lions owe a considerable debt to Sisanda Magala for ensuring they are not with Boland and Free State at the bottom of the log with zero points. The burly pace bowler has been superb with the ball, especially at the death, and his eight overs so far have cost just 6.62 runs per over, and he chipped in with a couple of key wickets that killed off the KZN charge to victory on Thursday.

Magala also shone with the bat. Coming in at 95/5 in the 12^th over, he scored a punishing 37 off just 27 balls to lift the Lions to 156/8, which proved to be just enough.

Magala has not yet shown the same expertise at international level, but in a team that is often criticised for their bowling skills on flat pitches (expected in Australia), he brings a package that still looks useful.

South Africa will no doubt have to restructure their team a bit in Australia to reflect the more pace-friendly conditions, but young fast bowlers have not exactly been shoving their hands up in the CSA T20. The best quicks have been veterans like Magala, Hardus Viljoen, Junior Dala and Beuran Hendricks.

But it has been pleasing to see the change in mindset surrounding the use of spin that Mark Boucher spearheaded in the national team start to filter down to the provinces. Spinners have done wonderfully well on the slow pitches at St George’s Park and some potential stars are starting to come through.

Left-armer Johannes Diseko has been key to North-West’s surprise charge to the top of the log, while Proteas like George Linde, Senuran Muthusamy, Bjorn Fortuin and Aaron Phangiso continue to shine.

Prenelan Subrayen has shown he is a quality off-spinner and Imraan Manack is key to the Boland attack; 19-year-old leg-spinner Caleb Seleka looks highly promising for North-West too.

Most positively, the presence of Proteas stars like Miller, Tabraiz Shamsi, Janneman Malan, Quinton de Kock and Dwaine Pretorius has ensured that quality runs through this summer’s CSA T20 Challenge.

The supposed ills of the Central Gauteng Lions team turned out to be hypochondria more than anything else as they surged back to their best with an impressive eight-run win over the powerful KZN Dolphins in the CSA T20 Challenge at St George’s Park on Thursday.

Electing to bat first, the Lions were hyper-aggressive from the outset, but they lost three wickets in the powerplay. Shane Dadswell was the one top-order batsman to stick around for a while, scoring a pugnacious 42 off 28 balls.

But the Lions were in trouble at 113/6 in the 15^th over and they were grateful to Sisanda Magala, who stated his batting credentials in no uncertain fashion with a punishing 37 off 27 deliveries, for getting them to a healthy 156/8.

Jason Smith (3-0-16-3) and Ruan de Swardt (4-0-32-3) did most of the damage for KZN, but off-spinner Prenelan Subrayen was their most testing bowler with 1/26 in his four overs.

Left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin (4-0-16-2) then took two wickets up front to reduce the Dolphins to 26/3, but the KZN side may have been imagining they were still in with a shout when Grant Roelofsen (34 off 26), Khaya Zondo (35) and Smith (39 off 34) were at the crease.

But Magala (4-0-26-2) was then outstanding with the ball at the death, as was Malusi Siboto (4-0-23-2) through the innings, as KZN were restricted to 148/8.

Earlier, the North-West Dragons had ruthlessly slit the throats of the Free State Knights, restricting them to a parlous 94/9.

Spinners Johannes Diseko (4-0-19-2) and Senuran Muthusamy (4-0-8-2) were superb, well-supported by left-arm quick Duan Jansen (4-1-16-1). North-West were also extremely slick in the field, effecting three run outs.

Openers Wesley Marshall (43 off 29) and Heino Kuhn (30* off 20) were then clinical in chasing down the target after 10.1 overs, earning North-West an eight-wicket win and a bonus point.

Western Province batted with tremendous authority on Wednesday to chase down a record score of 164 and beat the Eastern Province Warriors by seven wickets with 17 balls to spare for their second successive victory in the CSA T20 Challenge at St George’s Park.

Opening batsman Richard Levi led the charge with a powerful, sensational knock of 40 off just 17 balls, including five fours and three sixes.

With fellow opener Jonathan Bird making 39 off 26 deliveries, Western Province raced to 69/1 in the powerplay.

Bird fell in the 10^th over with 66 runs still required, but well-organised batting by the experienced duo of Dane Vilas (33* off 27) and George Linde (34* off 24) ensured the visitors kept the whip hand over the Warriors.

Mthiwekhaya Nabe (3-0-18-2) was the best EP bowler and spinner Jon-Jon Smuts was economical, but the rest of the attack was plundered.

Eastern Province, after electing to bat first, had posted a commanding 163/5 thanks to opener Wihan Lubbe batting through and controlling the innings with his 69 not out off 59 balls.

There were other little cameos around him, but the most profitable partnership was the 56 off 40 deliveries he put on with Lesiba Ngoepe (36 off 20) for the third wicket.

Left-arm seamer Wayne Parnell was the pick of the WP bowlers with 1/25 in his four overs.

The Northerns Titans lost on the opening day to the Warriors, and the composure they showed in beating the Boland Rocks by three runs in a thrilling game will please coach Mandla Mashimbyi.

Boland looked well on their way to their target of 159 when they needed 19 runs off two overs with the sixth-wicket pair of Michael Copeland and Ferisco Adams going well.

But fast bowler Junior Dala (3/36) ended the penultimate over in outstanding fashion, removing both set batsmen, and Aya Gqamane then conceded just eight runs in the final over when 12 were needed for Boland to win.

SA U19 player Copeland, making his senior T20 debut after returning from the West Indies on Monday, did extremely well to score 39 off 33 balls.

Janneman Malan had given the Boland chase a blazing start with 45 off 31 balls, but Northerns spinners Aaron Phangiso (4-0-20-2) and Tabraiz Shamsi (4-0-24-1) then turned the screw.

Having been sent in to bat, Titans openers Gihahn Cloete (53 off 41) and Quinton de Kock (72 off 61) batted brilliantly and were in full control as they added 106 in 13.5 overs.

The Boland bowlers, led by Adams, who conceded just 26 runs in his four overs, fought back well though, and despite Donovan Ferreira’s 27 not out off 17 deliveries, Northerns would have felt they could have posted more than 158/2.

George Linde has obviously found married life to be to his liking as he led Western Province to victory over the Boland Rocks with a fine display with both bat and ball on the opening day of the CSA T20 Challenge at St George’s Park on Monday.

Linde, who pulled out of the Proteas tour to New Zealand due to his wedding last weekend, was outstanding with the ball as he took 2/13 in four overs as Boland were restricted to 142/6 after electing to bat first.

They got that far thanks to a partnership of 79 between Christiaan Jonker (46) and Ferisco Adams (34), both of whom were dismissed in the space of three balls by the orthodox left-armer.

Fellow spinner Junaid Dawood (4-0-20-1) and left-arm seamer Beuran Hendricks (4-0-28-2) were also impressive for Western Province.

The Western Province chase was given a superb start by returning opening batsman Richard Levi, who slammed 67 off 39 balls, despite another former international, fast bowler Hardus Viljoen, taking 3/16 in three overs.

But Levi was dismissed in the 13^th over with 42 runs required, giving Boland a chance of getting back in the game.

But Linde then scored 20 not out and, with Aviwe Mgijima (26*) steered Western Province home with three overs to spare.

The Northerns Titans, with Quinton de Kock, Heinrich Klaasen and Theunis de Bruyn providing plenty of batting power, and spinners Tabraiz Shamsi and Aaron Phangiso dominating the middle overs, have been installed as one of the favourites for the competition.

But they were beaten by 8 runs by the Eastern Province Warriors as their batting failed to fire and poor bowling with the new ball and in the closing overs undid their good work in the middle.

Sent in to bat, Matthew Breetzke (36 off 21) and Wihan Lubbe raced to 65 inside the first seven overs.

The Northerns spinners, led by slow left-armer Phangiso’s 1/24 in four overs, then fought back, but Lubbe batted through to the 17^th over for his well-controlled 56 off 46 balls and Tristan Stubbs provided a matchwinning boost by lashing an outstanding 51 off 27 deliveries to take EP to 163/8.

Lizaad Williams dismissed them both to finish with 2/29 in his four overs.

Lubbe then claimed the key wicket of De Kock for a two-ball duck in the opening over and Gihahn Cloete (23), De Bruyn (17) and Klaasen (20) were all unable to build on starts.

The talented Donovan Ferreira belted 60 not out off 40 balls but did not have enough support as Northerns closed on 155/8.

Lubbe took 2/15 in two overs, but the best Warriors bowler was the experienced Jon-Jon Smuts, who conceded just 12 runs in his four overs and claimed the key wicket of Klaasen.