Ken Borland

The DP World Lions scored the least number of runs in the powerplay out of all the teams in the CSA T20 Challenge, and yet they went on to top the log and win the competition in convincing fashion, which points to how smart their cricket was, and in the last two weeks it had a lot to do with the riches of experience brought to the number three position by Rassie van der Dussen.

The final at the DP World Wanderers Stadium last weekend was a case in point. The Momentum Multiply Titans went hard in the powerplay and consequently made a poor start on a tricky pitch, crashing to 34 for three in the first six overs. That became 54 for six in the ninth over and our DP World Lions were in a powerful position early in the game.

“Aiming for around 40 in the powerplay has served us well,” head coach Russell Domingo said after claiming the title with a clinical eight-wicket win with 29 balls to spare. “I’m a bit old-fashioned in that I like to have wickets in hand, be more circumspect up front, especially at the DP World Wanderers where the ball does a bit. A lot of people think the first six overs are the most important, but I think the last six are.”

Van der Dussen has epitomised that smart cricket since he returned to the team from duty overseas for the last two round-robin matches and then the playoffs – notching scores of 43 (off 33 balls), 59 (38), 40* (37) and 44 not out in the final off just 31 deliveries. That saw him to the top of the final batting averages with 186 runs at an average of 93 and a healthy strike-rate of 133.81.

“We know how to play at the DP World Wanderers and it’s not as if the pitch gets better in the second innings. So in the first 10 overs we’ve been happy to be around run-a-ball as long as we’re not too many wickets down, because from 60 for six there is no coming back, like we saw in the final,” Van der Dussen said.

“So we’re happy if we’re 60 for two or three at halfway because then we are set up to get 160/170. We’re really trying to guard our wickets. At a place like SuperSport Park, where it’s really flat and the ball flies, you can take on the powerplay and you can be 70 after six overs. But we use our home advantage.

“I’m happy playing a certain way and I do have a few years of experience. My stats get nit-picked and it’s been said that I don’t score enough runs in my first few balls. So I’ve had to find the balance between righting those stats and the fact that I really want to win. I will do whatever is needed to win, whatever it takes to get to the playoffs. People use stats in whatever way suits them, but there’s only one thing that’s always at the forefront of my mind and that’s what’s needed to win in the current situation. I love playing for the Lions and I just want them to win,” Van der Dussen said.

The other obvious feature of our DP World Lions’ triumph was how the absence of Proteas stars like Temba Bavuma, Ryan Rickelton, Wiaan Mulder and Kagiso Rabada did not stop the charge of #ThePrideOfJozi to the title.

“It’s been great to see that despite having lost Ryan, Temba, KG and Wiaan to the Proteas, and myself, Reeza Hendricks, Nqaba Peter and Bjorn Fortuin at the start, we were still able to defend our title,” Van der Dussen said. “To see others coming in has been fantastic, like Junaid Dawood, who still finished as the leading wicket-taker in the competition, with Kwena Mapahaka, even though he didn’t play the last few games.

“That’s always our challenge at the DP World Lions, to rectify the loss of our Proteas, to fill the gaps. Russell communicated with us at the start of the season that it was not a long tournament, so he also had to balance giving guys playing opportunity. The back-up guys also need to get game-time, you need to give them responsibility so we can see what we’ve got after the internationals.

“They have filtered in really well and it’s been a totally different team to win the competition this season. And it’s been great to see the same principles that we aspired to last season – things like work ethic, not getting ahead of ourselves and there being no egos, speaking the same language – have been there again.

“But when you have leaders like Jono Leaf-Wright and Russell Domingo, then they keep you so grounded. Jono is just the best human being and Russell is always really direct and honest with us,” the veteran stalwart of #ThePrideOfJozi said.

Tristan Stubbs, the 23-year-old Proteas batting prospect, has now been earmarked for the crucial number three position in the Test team, a crown prince following in the footsteps of South African greats like Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis.

Amla scored 7993 runs at an average of 49.95 batting at number three for South Africa, the record, while Kallis, who scored the most runs overall for the Proteas, made the number four slot his own but established his career at first wicket down from 1997 to 2009, playing 49 Tests there and averaging 49.

Given that Stubbs has only played a single Test and just 18 first-class matches, it was a surprise when Proteas Test coach Shukri Conrad was emphatic that the Eastern Cape product would be the number three batsman going forward, starting with the two-Test series in the West Indies next month.

“It shows how highly I rate Tristan,” Conrad said after announcing the Test squad. “Technically, he is one of our best batsmen and I believe he is unfairly seen as just being a white-ball player. The way he came in under pressure in the T20 World Cup and commanded his space, he imprinted himself on games.

“He’s a helluva player, the type I want at the top of the order. He has all the makings of a top-class number three. We have eight Tests in this cycle, so he will get a really good run with one eye on the future. Some may say it’s a big call, but I don’t believe I’m throwing him in the deep end, I’m not giving him a task I don’t think he can handle,” a typically forthright Conrad said.

Players coming from the Eastern Cape are often of rural stock and typically have no airs and graces, it being a strong farming community. Stubbs fits the stereotype: humble but in no way doubting his ability to fulfil the responsibility Conrad has given him.

“Batting number three for the Test side is a huge opportunity and challenge and I’m very thankful to the coach for backing me,” Stubbs told sportsboom.com in an exclusive interview. “Any time someone praises you like that, you don’t ever want to let them down. But I’ve dealt with a lot of expectation in my career before.

“It’s going to be a completely new role for me, but I’m going to go out and enjoy it and I’m really optimistic that I’ll be ready for it when I get on the plane to the Caribbean next week,” Stubbs said from the Proteas training camp in Durban.

Stubbs’s performances in the T20 World Cup suggest he is certainly up for the challenge. While 165 runs in eight innings at a strike-rate of 101.22 are mediocre figures at face value, he played most of his innings on extremely testing pitches and was batting up the order. He had the highest batting average (33.00) for South Africa in the tournament and played a key role in their progress to the final.

“It was a different role for me because I’ve never come in before when the team has lost two quick wickets, batting in the powerplay, trying to see off the new ball. But I really enjoyed it, coming in in some really tough positions. I enjoy batting when it is tough,” Stubbs said.

A natural strokeplayer and a powerful hitter of the ball, it is not surprising that Stubbs has made his mark initially in white-ball cricket. But he has a top-class record in the four-day game, averaging 50.20.

The fact that his last red-ball innings was a landmark innings of 302 not out for Eastern Province against KwaZulu-Natal Inland in February in South Africa’s premier red-ball competition, and that he has a phenomenal conversion rate of going to his hundred five of the six times he has passed fifty, suggest he has the makings of a quality number three. And a great desire for big runs.

“I took a lot of confidence from that triple-century. Our coach, Robin Peterson, is always harping on about we mustn’t just score hundreds – that’s not good enough, we must score big centuries,” Stubbs said.

“I got to go in early [at 20 for two] and I was able to bat all day. In the last year or so, I’ve really tried to value my wicket more. I’m always looking to score, but I also want to be more consistent. So I’ve put a big emphasis on not getting out, and that’s in all formats, particularly T20. Before I would get in and then play a stupid shot to get out. Now I’m trying to bat until the last over.

“I probably take more confidence, though, from how I batted in New York during the T20 World Cup, because of how I reacted when I was under high pressure. I really enjoy batting, I joke with my mates that the only time I’ve been dismissed between 50 and a hundred in first-class cricket is when my team-mate ran me out! So I would probably love a five-day draw with both teams making 600 in the West Indies,” Stubbs said with a laugh.

While he admitted healing would be slow from their T20 World Cup final disappointment – “it hurts so much more because we had done so well before” – Stubbs has exciting new opportunities lying ahead of him that will help ease the pain.

Rassie van der Dussen was a virgin when it came to Test cricket on the subcontinent going into the first Test against Pakistan in Karachi last week and South Africa’s number three batsman pronounced himself satisfied with his efforts on Monday.

Van der Dussen, whose previous sub-continental experience has been limited to a first-class game for SA A in 2018 and a handful of T20s, made 17 and 64 in Karachi. His first innings saw him get off to a fluent start before he needlessly ran himself out, but his second innings was a fine 151-ball effort that reignited the Proteas’ hopes of winning the game along with Aiden Markram.

“For my first Test match in the sub-continent I was quite happy. You speak to players who have been successful here in the past, they prepare you for what to expect, and after spending time in the middle I can see it was exactly what we spoke about. So it’s nice to know my preparation and execution was good and I will take confidence from that into the second Test.

“The obvious difference to back home is the lack of bounce. Here the spinners come on quite early when the ball is still newish. There would be a lot more bounce for a spinner bowling with a newish ball in South Africa and slip would be in play but lbw would probably be out. But here the new ball skids through low, no ball is going to go over the stumps so all dismissals are in play all the time, for every ball,” Van der Dussen said on Monday.

The 31-year-old said the Proteas batting unit will be making an active effort in the second Test, which starts on Thursday in Rawalpindi, to bat time more than they did in their poor first innings of just 220 in Karachi after winning the toss.

“We were really disappointed to only get 220 after winning the toss. On the sub-continent, batting time is vital and we know as a batting unit that we weren’t even close to good enough. We prepared in bad conditions which is what we got to an extent, so we had the right game-plan, it was just the execution was lacking. It’s our responsibility if you get in, and a few of us got starts, to put pressure on the opposition.

“You need to get 350 at least and bat the whole day. But it was all of our’s first time in Pakistan, so it’s valuable experience that will hold us in good stead going forward. We will definitely be looking to rectify our batting. It comes down to the fundamentals of building an innings, give yourself a chance by surviving the first 20-30 balls. It was good bowling but there was also a bit of indecision,” Van der Dussen said.