Ken Borland

Robyn Searle

The Fidelity Titans captain probably does not get the adulation she deserves after another stellar season in 2023/24. The right-handed opener was the team’s leading run-scorer in both the one-day and T20 competitions, and a model of consistency.

In the 50-over tournament, her tally of 397 runs was second only to Proteas star Tazmin Brits in the overall run-scorers list, while her 233 runs in the T20s was the fifth best nationally. Five half-centuries in 10 innings in the one-dayers left her with an outstanding average of 44.11.

The 27-year-old Searle is an elegant strokeplayer who can score all around the wicket. Born in Johannesburg, she initially played for Gauteng, before joining the University of Pretoria and the Titans.

Paulinah Mashishi

Paulinah Mashishi bowled her off-spin with such skilful nuance last season that she was the joint leading wicket-taker in both the one-day and T20 competitions.

Undoubtedly the banker of the Fidelity Titans attack, the Hammanskraal product took 18 wickets in ten 50-over matches, a tally only matched by Proteas star Nonkululeko Mlaba. Mashishi averaged just 19.11 and conceded only 3.90 runs per over. In the T20s, she also averaged 19 as she took 11 wickets, conceding just 5.38 runs-per-over.

Hailing from the Tshwane University of Technology, Mashishi bowls with a high action and is wonderfully accurate. She was named the Titans player of the season earlier in 2024.

Tebogo Macheke

Identified as a wicketkeeper/batter of much potential, Macheke has played for the SA Emerging team and been invited to senior Proteas camps.

Hailing from Hammanskraal, Macheke averaged 23.25 with the bat in six one-day matches for the Fidelity Titans last season, and scored 108 T20 runs at better than a run-a-ball.

Now 24, Macheke played for the Limpopo Impalas for a couple of seasons, but returned to Northerns in 2022.

Ricea Coetzer

Just 24 years old but a stalwart of the team, Coetzer has been playing for the Fidelity Titans since 2016.

The Titans have been able to take advantage of her accurate spin bowling to restrict opposition batting line-ups, and last season she had an economy rate of 6.77 in T20s and 4.96 in one-day cricket, playing nine matches across the two formats.

But the teacher and former University of Pretoria player has also been known to rip through batting line-ups and in the 2021 Women’s Provincial League in Cape Town she returned the astonishing figures of five for six in 10 overs against the Central Gauteng Lions.

Coetzer is also handy with the bat, with a highest List A score of 70.

Gandhi Jafta

Intellectual prowess and sporting success flow into each other for Gandhi Jafta as this University of Pretoria star combines lecturing and doing her doctorate in Mathematical Statistics with being a key all-rounder for the Fidelity Titans.

Educated at Lilyfontein in East London and making her senior provincial debut for Border as a 16-year-old in 2015, Jafta’s life and career flew to new heights at Tuks. She was named the leading university’s Cricketer of the Year in both 2020 and 2022, and made her debut for the Titans in 2018.

Last season, Jafta excelled with the ball for the Titans in the 50-over competition, taking 10 wickets in seven matches with her well-flighted off-spin, averaging just 20.10 with an economy rate of only 4.46.

As a batter, she relies more on feel than power and scored her second half-century for the Titans last season. She has also represented the SA Emerging team and was a member of the squad that reached the final of the Africa Games in Ghana.

Katherine Prior

The Fidelity Titans were fortunate to receive good starts in most of their innings last season thanks to the presence of Prior and skipper Robyn Searle at the top of the order.

The Mpumalanga product’s transformation from a bowling all-rounder to top-order batter was made complete in 2023/24 as Prior scored 305 runs for the Titans in the one-day competition, second only to Searle, at a superb average of 61.00, including three half-centuries. She was also the aggressor up front in the T20 tournament, striking at 106.66.

Prior is more of a part-time bowler these days, but her bustling medium-pace, with a bit of swing, still chips in with useful wickets.

Amogelang Maphangula

Amogelang Maphangula is the sort of white-ball player that gets viewers up off their couches – an exciting, dominating middle-order batter and a wonderful fielder.

Fresh out of her teens, Maphangula was really able to express herself with the bat in the 50-over competition last season, scoring 153 runs at an average of 25.50 and a phenomenal strike-rate of 124.39 – the best in the tournament.

She performed her finishing role with intent in the T20 league, striking at 103.70.

A thrilling season for Maphangula saw her play in Japan as part of an exchange programme and she was named the Titans’ Most Promising Player at the end of the local campaign.

Who knows where Maphangula’s cricketing odyssey will end, what we do know is that it will get spectators on their feet.

Kay-Leigh Tapp

Tapp began her provincial career way back in 2006 in Durban, where she was born, and, going into her 15^th season of senior cricket, she is still a wonderful pace bowler. Tapp joined the Titans in 2021 after a four-year break from the game; her appointment as head of girls’ sport and physical education at Beaulieu Preparatory School was why she moved to Gauteng.

The 34-year-old was a key member of the Fidelity Titans’ one-day team last season, taking 11 wickets, but what she did particularly well was restrict the batters – conceding just 3.83 runs-per-over. Tapp was similarly economical in the T20 competition, going for just 7.71 runs-per-over.

Tapp is a tall bowler who is able to bowl consistent lines and can either hit the deck hard or get the ball up to the batter.

Monalisa Legodi

One is loathe to put too much pressure on young cricketers and Monalisa Legodi is still a teenager but has become a regular in the Fidelity Titans senior outfit. The tall and athletic pace bowler played 13 times in both one-day and T20 cricket for the team last season and was particularly effective in the 50-over game, taking seven wickets in six matches at an average of 19.85 and conceding just 5.14 runs-per-over.

Having already played for the SA U19 and SA Emerging teams, Legodi is poised to enter Titans lore if she continues to mature into the bowler she is expected to become. As far back as December 2020, Legodi, from the Soshanguve hub, grabbed an opportunity to impress then senior national coach Hilton Moreeng with her performances when he attended the Women’s Super League in Cape Town.

Alysia Rudolph

The 27-year-old Rudolph is a new signing from Division II side Easterns. A marvellously talented cricketer, she can bowl mesmerising off-spin as well as being a mighty striker of the ball, either at the top of the order or as a finisher.

Rudolph was a star all-round sportsgirl at Vereeniging Gimnasium and first played senior cricket in the Gauteng system, where she spent five years. She joined Easterns in 2020/21 and has earned her stint back in the domestic top division by virtue of her performances with the ball last season. Rudolph was the leading wicket-taker in the T20 Division II competition as well as being in the top-five in one-day cricket. With the bat, she struck at 84.31 in the 50-over game and 120.89 in the shortest format.

Pura Andreou

A product of the powerful Cornwall Hill College cricket system, Pura Andreou is a new signing for the Fidelity Titans, fresh out of school. But she has been a dominant batter not just against her peers, but in Northerns senior premier league club cricket. Andreou plays for Irene Villagers and shone for them back in April at the T20 national club championships. Andreou has played for the Titans U19 team since 2021, taking a terrible toll on bowling attacks since then.

Masabata Klaas

The Proteas stalwart hails from Botshabelo in the Free State and joined the Fidelity Titans last season, enjoying a marvellous debut campaign in which she topped both the batting and bowling averages for the team in the T20 competition. Klaas claimed seven scalps in her five T20s, averaging just 15.00 and conceding just 5.52 runs-per-over. She also showed she has the makings of a genuine all-rounder, producing some mighty blows as she scored 94 runs in four innings, being dismissed just once and scoring at a magnificent strike-rate of 130.55.

Klaas took six one-day wickets, with an economy rate of only 4.40, and also averaged 25.33 with the bat, at a strike-rate of 83.51.

A bustling pace bowler who keeps to tight off-side lines and has an excellent slower-ball, Klaas has played nearly 150 times for South Africa in all formats and is an inspirational figure because she took time off from her career to be a mother.

Laura Wolvaardt

A prestigious signing for the Fidelity Titans last season, Wolvaardt’s hot run of form just keeps rolling on, even though she has also now taken over the captaincy of the Proteas. In Tests she became just the third player to score a century in all three formats of women’s international cricket; in ODIs she powered her way to five centuries last season while scoring 925 runs in 15 innings, at an average of 84.09 and a strike-rate of 88.68; and in T20s she averaged 62 with a strike-rate of 124.

A global superstar who has won the Big Bash League twice and has also played in the T20 leagues in England and India, Wolvaardt was named South Africa’s Player of the Year earlier in 2024 and walked away with four other awards. Born in Milnerton and educated at Parklands College in the Western Cape, Wolvaardt first began playing cricket with boys when she was four years old.

A supreme stylist at the crease, with arguably the most beautiful cover-drive in the game, opening batter Wolvaardt combines technical excellence with fiery strokeplay.

Anneke Bosch

The 31-year-old Proteas regular joined the Fidelity Titans last season and, without ever going wild with the bat, enjoyed a very solid debut season for the Sky Blue Daisies.

Bosch averaged 39.50 in 50-over cricket and 37.75 in the T20 competition. Technically correct as a batter who is flexible enough to bat in the top-order and lower down, Bosch also offers part-time seam bowling and has a dozen international wickets to her name.

Hailing from East London, Bosch’s journey to the Titans has taken her via Border, Free State and North-West. She made her Proteas debut in 2016 and is a qualified biokineticist.

Sune Luus

The Titans legend and former Proteas captain goes into the 2024/25 season having enjoyed her own version of an Indian summer to give her plenty of momentum. Luus scored 65 and an epic 109 in South Africa’s Test against India in Chennai in June, showing that beneath the broadest of smiles there is a character with huge tenacity.

Luus, who has a cricket-mad father and older brother, took up the game at the age of four and by the time she was 13, she was playing for the Titans senior side already, debuting in 2009. Luus was a top-order batter for the Hoërskool Menlopark boys team through to U15 level, taking on provincial representatives.

Apart from scoring more than 3700 runs for South Africa in all formats, Luus has also taken more than 150 white-ball wickets with her well-flighted leg-spin.

A gutsy performer, Luus is one of the most accomplished cricketers to come out of Northerns territory and everyone at the Titans was delighted to see her back to her best for the Proteas, after some tough series.

Luus fitted in four appearances for the Fidelity Titans last season between all her international commitments and played a couple of blazing knocks in the T20 competition, striking at 155.10.

Eliz-Mari Marx

A penetrative pace bowler and a big-hitting batter, Marx has been part of the Titans set-up since 2016, when she was just 13 years old.

But last season was her breakthrough campaign. The all-rounder started the season by nailing the SWD Badgers attack for 115 runs off just 66 balls, an innings studded with 11 fours and six sixes. In December she made her Proteas debut and in February she claimed two key wickets in a robust spell of pace bowling during South Africa’s historic first ODI win against Australia on their home turf.

Born and bred in Pretoria, Marx went to Hoërskool Zwartkop, the same school that produced Titans legend Mignon du Preez. Physically powerful, Marx is fast becoming a key player for the Daisies and a rising talent in South African cricket.

Gordon Matheson

Gordon Matheson comes to SuperSport Park as the new head coach of the Fidelity Titans after three challenging seasons in charge of the Mpumalanga senior men’s team.

An experienced mentor who has been coaching since 2001, Matheson was previously in charge of the King Edward V11 1^st XI and played a pivotal role in the development of exciting new stars in South African cricket like Bryce Parsons and Mitchell van Buuren.

A coach who is strong on batting and building relationships with his players, Matheson was introduced to the game as a young child by his grandfather (also Gordon), who played first-class cricket for Griqualand West in the 1960s.

Athi Maphosa

Having been the assistant coach of the KZN Inland Tuskers men’s team in Division One last season, Athi Maphosa is an exciting addition to the Fidelity Titans coaching staff.

The 34-year-old Maphosa has plenty of playing experience, appearing more than a hundred times for the KZN Inland team as a tidy pace bowler, as well as featuring in 13 franchise matches for the Dolphins.

Born in Umzimkulu in the southern Natal Midlands, Maphosa was educated at Maritzburg College and played for the SA Schools Colts side in 2008. He has also been involved in coaching at hubs level – at Sweetwaters.

The Joburg Super Kings just need to win one more game to book their place in the SA20 final after they threw everything at the deflated Paarl Royals and hammered them by nine wickets with 40 balls to spare in their Eliminator at the Wanderers on Wednesday evening.

Having just scraped into the playoffs with victory in their last round-robin game, the Super Kings will now face the Durban Super Giants in Qualifier 2 at the Wanderers on Thursday, the winner going on to play defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape in the final at Newlands on Saturday.

Before their almost complete victory over the Royals, Joburg’s best showing in the tournament had been in the previous game when they registered a rousing win in the final over against the selfsame Super Giants last weekend.

Wednesday was a night when just about everything went according to plan for the Super Kings, starting with winning the toss and sending Paarl in to bat first, which has generally been tougher this season at the Wanderers.

And then Sam Cook, making his SA20 debut because strike bowler Lizaad Williams picked up an injury, struck twice in his second over, removing Paarl’s two leading run-scorers going into the game, Jos Buttler (10) and Mitchell van Buuren (0).

Van Buuren’s dismissal was courtesy of a sensational catch by Imran Tahir, who showed that age is just a number by racing back from short fine-leg and diving to take a catch over his shoulder. At 44 years old, Tahir has been “poor in the field” this season, JSK coach Stephen Fleming admitted, but he took a second fantastic catch when he intercepted Dane Vilas’s sweep that was looking like being a low, flat six, at fine leg off Nandre Burger.

Burger also dismissed Jason Roy (24) and Wihan Lubbe (4), finally getting the wickets his excellent bowling this season has deserved.

While fast bowlers Cook, whose four for 24 in 3.5 overs were the best ever figures by an SA20 debutant, and Burger (4-0-26-3) shared most of the wickets, spinners Moeen Ali (4-0-26-1) and Tahir (4-0-33-2) were able to tie the batsmen down and strike, while seamer Dayyaan Galiem bowled two tidy overs for 11 runs.

From 43 for four, Vilas (21) and David Miller were able to double the total with their stand of 44 off 34 deliveries, and the Royals were relying on captain Miller for a big finish to give them a competitive score. But Miller was caught behind off a Tahir googly at the end of the 17^th over with the total on 126.

Eventually Paarl finished on 138, bowled out in 19 overs, setting them on track for their fifth successive defeat.

“We weren’t 100% with the ball, but we were on the right areas for long enough and we had a bit of luck,” a smiling Fleming said after the triumph. “It’s a very fine line, on certain days you can do everything right but it just doesn’t work.

“The word momentum is over-used, sometimes it’s just slightly different training or words beforehand that can turn things around, and we were nicely in the moment this evening.

“Imran has been poor in the field for us this season, and then he takes a couple of catches like that! That’s when you know it’s your day,” Fleming said.

Faced with a potentially tricky target if they lost early wickets, the Super Kings were on fire from the start of their chase.

In the briefing before their innings, the importance of a good start would have been emphasised, and once Leus du Plooy had lashed 68 off 43 balls, JSK were always going to make short work of the chase.

Du Plooy’s innings, laced with seven fours and two sixes, was a fine example of dominant strokeplay and clever shot options.

With Faf du Plessis giving perfect, sensible support at the other end, they raised their century partnership for the first wicket in the 10^th over, Du Plooy falling soon after, stumped off Tabraiz Shamsi.

But by then Du Plessis was giving the Royals bowlers a battering as well, and he finished with 55 not out off 34 deliveries.

When your best performance of the season comes at the start of the knockout rounds, your coach is going to be well-pleased, and Fleming was certainly chuffed.

“That was right up there as one of our most complete performances, and also with the status of the game. It’s a great time to have the sort of performance we aim for.

“The start of the chase was so good, it just killed the game, we polished off that target. It was a really good win,” Fleming said.

It was a day to test your patience at Leopard Creek on Sunday as thundershowers limited play to just over two hours of action, restricting the great title showdown between Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel to just seven holes which failed to break the deadlock between the two longtime friends.

Leaders Oosthuizen and Schwartzel, together with Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who began the final round five shots behind, teed off at 10am and were able to play four holes before the first storms moved over Malelane.

In that time, both Oosthuizen (2^nd hole) and Schwartzel (3^rd) managed to collect a birdie, while Bezuidenhout made his presence felt with birdies on the par-five second and par-four third holes to cut the gap to four strokes.

The lingering threat of lightning meant play was only able to resume at 4pm, and even then it only lasted 43 rather miserably wet minutes before thunder rumbled again and play was called off for the day.

Not much had changed in that time, although Oosthuizen must have had his heart in his mouth after he hit his tee-shot on the par-three seventh into the water. He showed his mettle, however, as he stroked in a 25ft putt to limit the damage to just a bogey.

Having just birdied the short par-four sixth after a lovely approach shot to six feet, it meant Oosthuizen dropped back to join Schwartzel on 16-under.

All three members of the final group began the final round smoothly, finding the fairways off the tee and hitting precision iron-shots. Bezuidenhout, however, had more success with the putter and he further cut the lead to three strokes as, straight after the lengthy weather delay, he rolled in a 20ft birdie putt on the par-three fifth hole.

Andy Sullivan was also cruising with two birdies in his first six holes, but he then bogeyed the par-four eighth to slip back to 11-under, five behind, alongside Germany’s Matti Schmid, who was three-under for his round.

Of the other South Africans besides the top three, Thriston Lawrence is accelerating up the leaderboard and is currently tied for eighth on eight-under, four-under for his round with three holes to play.

Jayden Schaper made a fast birdie-birdie start, but then went bogey-bogey and is level-par at the turn, also on eight-under overall.

Casey Jarvis sandwiched birdies at the first and third holes with a bogey at the par-five second, and then had a bit of a car crash on the ninth, with a double-bogey that dropped him to seven-under for the tournament, alongside Wynand Dingle.

The final round will only resume at 9am on Monday to allow the greenkeepers to ready the waterladen course.

The Sharks motored into a 12-0 lead after just 16 minutes, thanks to rapid recycles of the ball and tremendous direct rugby, but they then spluttered and allowed the Lions back into the game before eventually running rampant from the hour mark to win 37-10 in their United Rugby Championship match at Kings Park on Friday evening.

It was all smooth sailing for the Sharks at the start of the derby and, in the ninth minute, they kept possession through nine phases, after a strong carry by eighthman Phepsi Buthelezi, going right and then left before inside centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg broke the defensive line and passed inside for wing Makazole Mapimpi to score.

With 67% possession in the first half, the Sharks were soon back on attack and, after bashing away on the line against the stout Lions defence, they went wide, two short loop passes being followed by fullback Boeta Chamberlain knifing through for the try.

But the shift in momentum perhaps came straight afterwards as flank Jeandre Labuschagne misjudged the restart, dropping the ball, and Lions wing Edwill van der Merwe was on hand to kick through and score the try.

The Lions gained belief to go with their tireless efforts on defence, and despite making just 35 tackles to the visitors’ 105 in the first half, the Sharks went into halftime just 12-7 up.

Flyhalves Curwin Bosch and Jordan Hendrikse traded scrum penalties in the first six minutes of the second half, but the Sharks eventually showed why they were top of the log in southern hemisphere competition when SuperRugby was killed by Covid and remain one of the most highly-rated teams in Europe.

The turnaround came out of the blue as Chamberlain charged down a clearance by Lions fullback Andries Coetzee, centre Rohan Janse van Rensburg gathered and his pop pass found just the right player in scrumhalf Grant Williams, whose sheer speed from just outside the 22 made his try impossible to stop.

Having defended so much, perhaps fatigue set in for the Lions in the final quarter and they began to make basic errors. Centre Marius Louw strayed in front of the kicker, Jaden Hendrikse took a quick tap for the Sharks, Sikhumbuzo Notshe burst clear and Siya Kolisi rounded off the try.

The ever-busy Mapimpi then kicked through a dropped ball in the Lions backline, his second kick being a touch of Messi-like class, as he grabbed his second try at the death.

Scorers

Sharks – Tries: Makazole Mapimpi (2), Boeta Chamberlain, Grant Williams, Siya Kolisi. Conversions: Curwin Bosch (2), Jaden Hendrikse. Penalties: Bosch, Lionel Cronje.

Lions – Try: Edwill van der Merwe. Conversion: Jordan Hendrikse. Penalty: Hendrikse.