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.

Neil Brand was South Africa’s Test captain just three matches ago,  but now seems almost forgotten by Proteas coach Shukri Conrad. But the Titans skipper knows that a far greater weight of runs than he scored last season will be necessary to force his way back into the picture. Fortunately Brand is the persistent sort.

The left-handed opener and under-rated orthodox spinner led South Africa in their two Tests in New Zealand last summer when the SA20 was being played and had gobbled up most of the country’s top players. Now that everyone is available, competition for places for the two Tests in Bangladesh next month, and the series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan at home, is stiff with most of the stars available.

Brand has started the new season in fine fashion though, scoring an impressive century for the SA A team he led against Sri Lanka A, in Benoni. His 129 highlighted all his strengths – defiance at the crease, the technique to see off the new ball and the ability to shift gears when the bowling allowed it.

Despite his dream of playing Test cricket coming true in the most astonishing way, last season was actually a battle for Brand, who averaged just 25.92 in all first-class cricket last season, with one century and two fifties.

“It was a bit of a struggle,” Brand admitted when interviewed by Rapport. “I just couldn’t get going although I had lots of starts. But I learnt a lot last season too, especially going to New Zealand and playing for SA A. And I’ve put a lot of hard work in during the off-season, especially on my set-up because a lot of bowlers were getting me out from around the wicket, it was something they had obviously analysed.

“So I’ve made things a bit more simple for this season and it’s always nice to start with a hundred. It’s not really my personality to try and get away from cricket, I prefer hard work, so that’s what I did during the winter. There’s definitely a step-up between domestic and international cricket and it’s hardest in batting,” Brand said.

Now that the 28-year-old, who has been playing first-class cricket for nearly a decade, has a sense of what it requires to succeed at international level, he is well-placed to answer the question as to what our domestic players need to be able to make that step up.

If one has been following the conversation around local cricket recently, then you’ll not be surprised to hear him say playing more cricket is the key.

“We definitely lack cricket. Playing just seven first-class games makes it really tough and sometimes, if you have Proteas white-ball commitments, you only play three or four matches. I would definitely be keen for more red-ball games, we need at least 10. Most players who play for 10 years would be heading for 100 games, I have 55.

“So definitely more cricket is needed. Even for bowlers, for the volume required they need to be bowling 20 overs a day. Four-day cricket presents you with tough conditions and you have to find a way to perform. Our skills are there, but we just don’t execute them for long enough,” Brand said.

The runs flowed like the deluge of the previous evening on a record-breaking day for the Northerns Titans at SuperSport Park on Sunday, as they kept themselves in contention for a place in the playoffs of the CSA One-Day Cup by hammering the Eastern Province Warriors by 111 runs on the DLS system.

The heavy rains that fell over the Pretoria region on Saturday night meant the start of play was delayed by an hour due to the wet outfield, the contest being reduced to 43 overs a side.

With the sky thick with cloud and the threat of rain still around, the Warriors could be forgiven for winning the toss and feeling they should bowl first. But the Titans were not in a forgiving mood and they lashed 440 for five in those 43 overs, the second-highest total in the history of the competition. The franchise has scored the four highest totals in the tournament, the record being the 453 for five they smashed against the North-West Dragons in 2021/22, also at SuperSport Park.

But those other three 400+ scores were all made in 50 overs; 440 in 43 overs is a run-rate of 10.23 runs-per-over and that is undoubtedly the highest ever in any sort of limited-overs game in this country that has gone beyond 30 overs. It is quite probably a world record for any match that has gone for more than 35 overs.

Top-scorer Rivaldo Moonsamy has not enjoyed the best of campaigns up till now, scoring just 54 runs in the four innings he has batted, but he returned to form in the most brilliant fashion, belting 126 off just 83 balls, with 15 fours and six sixes.

But, astonishingly, he was not the star of the show. That honour fell to his opening partner Lhuan-dre Pretorius, who raced to his century in just 61 balls, the fastest ever for the Titans. The previous record was the 64-ball ton Farhaan Behardien made against the KZN Dolphins at Centurion in 2014/15.

Behardien was a late developer who played 97 times for South Africa in the limited-overs formats. Pretorius, just 18 years old, is a prodigy who has dazzled in both the SA20 and now the CSA One-Day Cup. The Proteas must surely come calling soon with an eye on the 2027 World Cup.

Pretorius finished with 107 off 69 deliveries, with 11 fours and seven sixes, five of them in the 17^th over bowled by Senuran Muthusamy, the international left-arm spinner. The left-hander is by no means just a basher, however. The power is definitely next level, but so are the smarts. He is a clever batsman, always looking to score, and the majority of his sixes were hit with a straight bat and the minimum of fuss or risk.

The opening partnership of 227 off 147 balls by Pretorius and Moonsamy was the best ever at SuperSport Park, beating the unbeaten 218 that AB de Villiers and Gulam Bodi scored in a 10-wicket victory over the Dolphins in 2005/6.

Sunday’s partnership was ended in the 24^th over, but the pain certainly did not end there for the Warriors, who did not get the assistance they expected with the ball, but were also poor in terms of their lines and lengths.

Dewald Brevis was also the centre of attention when he was still an U19 cricketer and, after a couple of leaner seasons, he is starting to look closer to the finished article. Incredibly, he struck the ball even cleaner than Pretorius and Moonsamy, and seemed on course to snatch Pretorius’s record for fastest Titans hundred from him just over an hour after he had set it as he raced to 75 off 43 balls.

Brevis stroked six sixes, a few of them quite extraordinary in execution, but then he was trapped in front by medium-pacer Andile Mogakane.

Captain Neil Brand (55* off 34 deliveries) and Sibonelo Makhanya, who came through a tough time with the bat this season with 46 not out off 22 balls, then completed a red-letter day with the bat for the Titans as they plundered 76 unbeaten runs off the last 39 deliveries.

There was much pain and suffering amongst the Warriors bowlers. Alfred Mothoa conceded 89 runs in eight overs, and Siya Plaatjie the same but in just six overs! Muthusamy rebounded well from conceding 30 runs to Pretorius in his second over, conceding only 50 in his other eight overs and getting the wickets of Moonsamy and Dayyaan Galiem (4).

The shellshocked Warriors were predictably always well behind in the chase, although JP King (31) and Matthew Breetzke (94 off 72) made a good fist of things in their second-wicket stand of 65 off 56 balls.

Breetzke impressed again with his poise and controlled aggression, backed by sweet timing as he collected 11 fours and two sixes.

When play was interrupted by the threat of lightning, the Warriors were 204 for five after 28 overs and more than 100 runs behind on DLS. When they returned 45 minutes later, they needed 159 runs in four overs.

Muthusamy (29 off 20) and C.J. King (30* off 12 balls with four sixes) had some fun, but Eastern Province ended on 251 for seven in 32 overs.

Left-arm spinner Roelof van der Merwe took two wickets and conceded just 38 runs his seven overs, and Junior Dala set the tone up front with figures of 4-2-10-0.

The Titans are now on 11 points, just one point behind the Warriors in the third and final playoff place; and Eastern Province may well be joining them on 11 as they are expected to be docked a point for very slow over-rates in this match.

Northerns complete their round-robin campaign with visits to Potchefstroom to play the sixth-placed North-West Dragons on Wednesday and Bloemfontein next Sunday to face the second-placed Free State Knights.

Ryan Rickelton’s 2022/23 season was stocked full of runs and accolades, and yet the 26-year-old maintains that it was a failure because he did not entirely nail down his place in the Proteas team.

Never mind that the management of the national squad seemed reluctant to choose him due to an ankle injury that their medical staff deemed too much of a risk.

Rickelton showed his determination by ploughing through the season, churning out runs at domestic level for the Central Gauteng Lions as he stubbornly refused to have surgery and his ankle became the most talked-about body part in South African cricket.

The wicketkeeper/batsman scored three centuries in his five four-day innings for the Lions and he was the leading run-scorer in the One-Day Cup with 452 at 64.57, scored at better than a run-a-ball and playing a leading role in his team claiming a third-successive 50-over title. He was named the Lions’ Player of the Season and Players’ Player of the Season recently.

But his opportunities at international level were limited to one Test and two ODIs. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the lack of consistent game time for the Proteas, he scored just 22 and 10 in the second Test against the West Indies at the Wanderers and 14 and three in his two ODIs against the same team.

And that is why Rickelton, because of the passion he brings to the game and the high standards he sets himself, deems the previous summer to have been a failure.

“It was not my best season, if you look at the whole package. I had a couple of successful competitions but there were also failures at international level and in T20. I had four chances for success in the international season, so it’s a failure for me by pure percentages, but I guess I will take it and move forward,” Rickelton said.

“I always have this anxiety that I don’t want to be just a good domestic player. I had no fear in my international debut in March 2022, but now it’s something I need to overcome.

“If I can just make one score at international level then that will settle the nerves and I’m sure I can make a good contribution for the Proteas. It’s hugely different to playing at domestic level, but awesome at the same time, which is why everyone aspires to play there.

“There’s a helluva lot more pressure, shit it’s hard. For the first time in my career, you get dismissed cheaply and you feel like you might not necessarily get runs tomorrow either.

“But it’s more internal pressure from myself. I’ve stuck my foot in the door now and I’ve just got to climb the ladder and get more comfortable as I get more opportunity,” Rickelton said.

The left-hander leaves no doubt that his fiery ambition burns brightest for Test cricket, which is why his mediocre return at the Wanderers was most upsetting. For a naturally free-flowing player, full of strokeplaying talent, efforts of 22 off 49 balls and 10 off 29 deliveries left him “disgusted”. On both occasions he was caught behind, edging a cut in the first innings and then attempting to drive on the up and providing the wicketkeeper with another catch.

But cricketers are not computers and it is difficult to simulate the kind of pressure that burrows its way into the consciousness when a batsmen feels like they are playing for their place. Rickelton should have played in the first Test against the West Indies at Centurion, when South Africa chose an extra bowler (spinner Senuran Muthusamy only delivered eight overs in the match) and their middle-order was badly exposed. One mistake and you’re out, gone, and there could be a long wait for another chance at Test level, particularly given how sparse the Proteas’ schedule is in that format.

“When I got the opportunity for the Proteas, technically I was not batting as well as I had been at the start of the season. But it’s also mental because you desperately want the fairytale.

“I was told two days before the Wanderers Test that I would then play. So I knew I had at least one innings, maybe two. You’re playing on your home turf, your parents are coming to watch, and you start thinking ‘maybe I will get a hundred, that would be cool’. And those thoughts accumulate.

“I felt really good going into the match, but in the end I was disgusted with my Test, I had no idea what was going on. It was like my head and body had no idea what the other one was doing.

“In the first innings I was maybe unlucky but I did not have to play that shot. Now you have one more chance and it gnaws at you.

“It’s the first time I’ve experienced fighting the same battle, making mountains of molehills, and I don’t like it. But I just have to deal with it.

“You so desperately want to prove that you belong, to take that weight off your shoulders and not have to fight for your place. You just want to bat with intent, open up on your own terms, but it’s ferociously difficult at the highest level. You have to earn the right to play like you want to.

“With the Proteas playing just 10 Tests over the next four years, every series you will feel like a new cap again, which doesn’t help. It’s going to be frustrating not to be able to build any momentum. Test cricket is the purest form of the game and I hope that the administrators don’t cripple it,” Rickelton said with searing honesty.

T20 franchises are becoming the main drivers of the game now, and Rickelton is sober-minded enough to know he has to master that format in order to have a long career. He was poor last season, by his own admission, in both the CSA T20 Challenge for the Lions (averaging 15 with a strike-rate of 131) and the SA20 for MI Cape Town (averaging 20, strike-rate 113).

“I have a shit-load of work to do quickly before next season to make sure I progress. Apart from making sure I step up internationally, I also need to rediscover my T20 game, which I lost a bit. I’m going to put a lot of effort into that and make sure I have a very good SA20. T20 is so important nowadays and I’ve neglected it a bit,” Rickelton said.

The ankle has now been operated on and fixed, and Rickelton says it is “loading very nicely”. He has started batting again and was part of the Proteas’ recent camp in Durban.

He hopes to be match-fit in a couple of weeks and able to push for selection for the ODIs against Australia in September.

The feeling of having to fight for a regular place in the team is not a new one for Rickelton. Surprisingly, given his natural talent and a pedigree that included playing for the 2014 SA Schools side, the St Stithians product initially languished in the Gauteng semi-pro team before making his breakthrough.

“I found my feet slowly and had to fight for my life at Gauteng, even though I knew what I could do. I almost had to prove it to myself though and allow myself to be free and have a real crack with the bat.

“It’s an experience every player goes through and I’ve been guilty of wanting things too badly in the past. But I will keep going,” Rickelton stated.