Ken Borland

An inspirational late blast by Donovan Ferreira was not quite enough to pull off a miracle win for Joburg Super Kings as they went down by 11 runs to Durban Super Giants in a rain-affected SA20 match at the Wanderers on Saturday night.

Joburg Super Kings were chasing a revised target of 147 in 16 overs after rain interrupted their innings on 31 for one after 3.4 overs. The magical mystery spin of Noor Ahmad (4-1-25-3) thoroughly undermined their chase though, and at 87 for six after 13 overs, the visitors seemed to be heading to a comfortable victory.

But with 60 runs needed off 18 balls, Ferreira then began to pull off the miraculous. He smashed left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj for three sixes and a four in the 14^th over and then hit paceman Naveen ul-Haq for 16 in the 15^th over. His two sixes were both incredible strikes of well over 100m – on to the roof of the Centenary Pavilion and then over the Memorial Stand!

That left 21 needed off the last over, and Dwaine Pretorius was brought into the attack for the first time. The 35-year-old showed all his experience and, after Ferreira had swung so hard for a two that he pulled an abdominal or back muscle, Pretorius had him caught behind, using one of his favourite strategies of bowling around the wicket to the right-hander, pitching it outside off-stump and going further away.

Ferreira’s 51 off 22 balls was an incredible effort however, sprinkled with five magnificent sixes. He had earlier bowled his off-spinning darts to good effect, conceding just 16 runs in three overs. He is a key player for Joburg Super Kings and they will be hoping any injury is healed before their all-important Eliminator against Sunrisers Eastern Cape at Centurion on Wednesday.

Noor was earlier bang on target when he came on to bowl straight after the rain interruption. He hit bullseye with his first delivery, a beauty that turned sharply and bowled Faf du Plessis (14 off 9) through the gate as he looked to drive.

The Afghan then zeroed in on Wihan Lubbe’s leg-stump, bowling the left-hander around his legs two balls later. Sibonelo Makhanya (13) was his third victim, edging an attempted slog-sweep at a googly and wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock taking the sharp chance.

Joburg Super Kings certainly did not field their strongest outfit and Jonny Bairstow and Imran Tahir are sure to return for the Eliminator.

It was not a great night for their two frontline spinners, Tabraiz Shamsi (2-0-25-0) and Maheesha Theekshana (4-0-36-0), and Joburg Super Kings were once again grateful for Lutho Sipamla turning in another stellar performance.

Sipamla had Marcus Stoinis caught by Ferreira at slip for a duck and only conceded 24 runs in his four overs, which included a maiden. Sipamla has now taken 12 wickets in eight matches and is conceding just 6.88 runs-per-over; with Lungi Ngidi not setting the world alight and consistently being under an injury cloud, is it not time for the Central Gauteng Lions bowler to be elevated above him in the national pecking order?

Durban Super Giants did not have a good start after being sent in to bat, with the departure of Stoinis leaving them on 39 for three in the sixth over – that followed an opening stand of 39 between Matthew Breetzke (23) and De Kock (16).

Kane Williamson brought the calm, measured approach he is famous for as his 22 helped stabilise the innings in a fourth-wicket stand of 64 off 45 balls with Heinrich Klaasen.

The New Zealander was dismissed by Hardus Viljoen, who produced an admirable first three overs that saw him boast figures of two for 20, but those stats were ruined by Klaasen, who produced the sort of hitting and finishing ability for which he is globally revered.

Klaasen hammered 76 off 47 balls, with six sixes, a fantastic innings which lifted Durban Super Giants to a very competitive score of 173 for four. With Wiaan Mulder contributing 30 not out off 22 balls, things ended poorly for Joburg Super Kings, Viljoen conceding 23 runs in the penultimate over.

Durban Super Giants will be pleased to end a bad campaign with just their second win; Joburg Super Kings, meanwhile, have a poor record when it comes to consistency: they won their first two games but have not won back-to-back since then.

If they are to reach the final, they will need to do just that next week.

The character of the Bulls was enough for them to weather the loss to injury of key players and the stern challenge of the tenacious Lions side as they registered an impressive 37-22 victory at Ellis Park in their United Rugby Championship derby on Saturday afternoon.

The joy of the bonus point victory was tempered, however, by the awful injury toll the Bulls suffered. Both the co-captains, Ruan Nortje and Elrigh Louw, both key Springbok forwards, face lengthy time on the sidelines.

Nortje limped off the field in the first five minutes with a leg problem, but it was the terrible injury to Louw that was most disturbing. A typically barn-storming run by the 25-year-old had ended with his leg trapped and then twisted. The agonising pain was obvious and he was already in surgery by 5pm.

The in-form Cameron Hanekom was also off the field at the time, for a head impact assessment. If the Bulls seemed shellshocked early in the second half as they tried to overturn a 10-11 deficit from the first half, then it was understandable.

But Hanekom returned and so did the Bulls’ mojo. The bench, boasting four Springboks in Akker van der Merwe, Nizaam Carr, Willie le Roux and Canan Moodie, played a key role in turning the tide and it was the visitors who certainly finished the game the stronger side. The Lions could only put up with the high-tempo battering for so long and the different financial positions of the two teams was clearly seen in the bench depth.

But the temptation to think everything was going against them and it was just not their day was there for the Bulls. But the champion character was what shone through in the end.

“I’m really proud of the team, after all the disruptions and then we went 10-14 down, some teams would have thought ‘well that’s it’. They could have capitulated,” coach Jake White said.

“But it says a lot about their character and they got the bonus point as well, you’ve got to play really well to do that at Ellis Park. We needed our bench to be really strong in terms of accuracy and the bottom line is we had four Springboks on our bench, which is a massive bonus.

“We needed that collective impact to come on and it was probably the best we have finished a game for the last two or three seasons. The Lions looked a bit tired and we could put pressure on them in a very high-tempo match. It was good to see that we had that vasbyt, that we could play at that tempo for the full 80 minutes, and it means a lot to the team to turn a potential loss into a bonus point win,” White said.

The Bulls began well and led 10-0 after 16 minutes. A tremendous steal by prop Gerhard Steenekamp was followed by flyhalf Boeta Chamberlain kicking across the field and into the Lions’ 22; busy wing Sergeal Petersen snaffled the ball out of the air and fed David Kriel on his inside for the opening try.

But the Lions enjoyed a strong second quarter, the Bulls’ efforts being deflated by some ill-discipline, soft mistakes and inopportune turnovers. Two penalties by flyhalf Sam Francis were followed by Henco van Wyk charging over for a try, having gathered a clever little kick by his midfield partner, Rynhardt Jonker.

A sombre mood settled over Ellis Park following the Louw injury, but then an excellent game of rugby emerged. The Lions were leading 17-13 after 53 minutes, but that was when the Bulls bench began to make their presence felt, along with the returning Hanekom and lock Cobus Wiese, who enjoyed an outstanding game.

The Bulls showed their composure and went back to basics, their scrum winning penalties, their forwards carrying powerfully through the middle and using the maul to good effect. Wiese and flank Marcell Coetzee both powered over for tries and it was replacement hooker Van der Merwe who claimed the bonus point as he rounded off a whirling dervish of a lineout drive.

“It’s disappointing because at one stage in the second half I thought we had turned the momentum,” Lions coach Cash van Rooyen said. “But under pressure we just started to do things differently. Some parts of the game we handled really well, others not. But you can’t buy experience and speeding up learning when we only had 205 caps in the whole team is difficult.

“Decision-making, communication and execution in the moment, these are things we work on every day. But inexperience makes a difference,” Van Rooyen said.

Proteas batting coach Justin Sammons says a large part of his team’s batting woes this year is due to their lack of experience because they do not play enough red-ball cricket.

While South Africa already play less Test cricket than most teams – a situation which will worsen markedly in the next couple of years – Cricket South Africa have also cut the number of four-day matches the provinces play to just seven per season due to financial constraints.

It means the country’s top batting talent may only play ten first-class innings a season when the effects of the weather and innings victories are thrown into the equation. Senior Proteas have also been conspicuous by their absence in domestic cricket, which weakens both the batting and bowling standard of the competition.

“What’s very important to realise is that there is no substitute for experience and you only gain that from playing,” Sammons said on Friday in Sydney. “The more you play, the more experience you get and the more lessons you learn.

“As a country, we need to look at how we look after the four-day system going forward. With the way the world is going, it’s a tricky balancing act, but we do need to find a way.

“The bottom line is that the players need to play as much cricket as possible. We’ve got to think out of the box, whether that’s the board or the director of cricket.

“But there has to be a way. We can’t just resign ourselves to T20 dominating and not playing enough first-class cricket. I believe the key for us is playing more four-day cricket,” Sammons said.

While the batting coach admitted that the batsmen were suffering from a lack of confidence, one positive has been the form of wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne, who has proven himself to be a tenacious customer. Verreynne was one of only three Proteas batsmen to average more than 30 (32.12) in 2022, the others being Temba Bavuma (40.07) and Keegan Petersen (38.38).

“The growth in Kyle’s game has been tremendous, both technically and obviously mentally,” Sammons said. “The key I think is that he has figured out his own way of playing at his tempo.

“He has stuck to the tempo that allows him to be successful. He will continue to work on that, but he’s clear in terms of his identity as a cricketer, he understands how to go about scoring runs.

“He’s like Dean Elgar, Jacques Kallis or Graeme Smith in that you knew what you would get from them. I think he has that clear identity of who he is as a cricketer, which goes a long way.

“Following the England series, in tough conditions, our batsmen’s confidence was dented a bit. And then the first Test here the conditions really favoured the bowlers and naturally the confidence was hit even more,” Sammons said.

At just 26 years of age, Thriston Lawrence is not yet an expert at finishing off wins, but his temperament and skill were still enough to carry him to an exciting one-stroke victory in the South African Open at Blair Atholl Golf and Equestrian Estate on Sunday.

Lawrence was leading by five shots with seven holes to play, but he let Frenchman Clement Sordet back into the contest with a horror run that saw him drop five shots between the 12^th and 16^th holes, including a double-bogey on the par-four 15^th, when he hit his second into the river.

Sordet had now drawn level, having birdied the par-four 14^th after a great approach shot to 12 feet. But the Challenge Tour graduate then blinked as he missed a six-foot putt for par on the penultimate hole, and then his drive on the par-five 18^th went into the fairway bunker, meaning he had to lay up and couldn’t really put pressure on Lawrence.

The South African, who collected four birdies between the fourth and 10^th holes, could afford to miss a three-foot birdie putt and still win by one.

“In a one-on-one like that, you need to make pars and not make mistakes, even when I was five ahead,” Lawrence said after his third DP World Tour win, all of them coming this year.

“Inside I’m not always calm, but it comes with experience, having been in that situation, and once you have won, it all adds up in terms of experience. It’s a big mental thing and I try to think of the present.

“So it was nice to see I managed to stay in the moment, even though I was nervous. I had been five ahead and I didn’t want to disappoint friends, family and sponsors. There was quite a lot of emotion walking up 18, it was a weird but good feeling.

“It’s never easy to win, it’s the toughest thing, but you teach yourself with experience. It felt easy in the middle of the round, but then golf happened and it was not the prettiest finish. But I just tried to stick to my game,” Lawrence said.

Starting the final round two strokes ahead of Sordet, Lawrence did not have the start he would have wanted as he bogeyed the first hole and Sordet pulled level with a birdie.

But an even bigger swing happened on the par-four fourth as Lawrence curled a superb approach shot to eight feet from the pin and made the birdie, while the 30-year-old Sordet found the fairway bunker and then hit his second out of bounds, leading to a double-bogey.

Suddenly Lawrence was three ahead and he extended that lead to five with another birdie on the fifth and back-to-back gains on nine and 10.

Pretoria Country Club’s Christian Maas claimed the Freddie Tait Cup for leading amateur as he finished on five-under-par. All five members of the GolfRSA squad who received invitations to the tournament made the cut, the first time this has happened in at least 30 years and exactly what the backers of the amateur programme would have wanted.