Ken Borland

The brave captaincy of Nicky van den Bergh and the outstanding bowling of his spinners led the North-West Dragons to a surprise 11-run win over the Central Gauteng Lions, the winners of the CSA T20 Challenge in the previous season.

Sent in to bat at St George’s Park, the Dragons could only muster 136/6, and that was thanks to the heroics of the seventh-wicket pair of Nono Pongolo (27* off 21) and Duan Jansen (32* off 18), who shared an unbeaten partnership of 57 off just 37 balls.

Seamer Codi Yusuf was the best of the tidy Lions attack with 2/21 in his four overs.

Left-arm spinner Johannes Diseko was then the star of the superb North-West bowling performance.

Opening the bowling, Diseko removed both Dominic (4) and Reeza Hendricks (0) with successive balls of his second over to immediately rock the Lions chase.

Josh Richards (23) and Mitchell van Buuren then added 50 for the third wicket, before 19-year-old leg-spinner Caleb Seleka removed Richards.

Van den Bergh backed his unheralded spinners to bowl at the death, with the Lions needing 45 runs in the last five overs with seven wickets in hand and Van Buuren set.

And it was a masterstroke as Seleka (4-0-23-2) conceded just seven runs and took a wicket in the 18^th over, and Diseko (4-0-17-2), darting the ball into the blockhole, also gave away just seven runs in the final over.

Van Buuren finished with a fine 65 not out off 56 deliveries, but he got a little stuck towards the end against the spinners and the left-arm angle of paceman Duan Jansen (4-0-24-0).

Left-arm spinner Senuran Muthusamy also bowled well, conceding just 19 runs in three overs.

The KZN Dolphins showed they are going to be a force on the slowish St George’s Park pitch as they hammered the Free State Knights, winners of the CSA Provincial T20 Cup at the start of the season, by eight wickets with two overs to spare.

The Dolphins spinners restricted the Knights, who had chosen to bat first, to 128/5, with off-spinner Prenelan Subrayen’s 1/13 in four overs a particularly telling effort.

Raynard van Tonder’s 38 and Farhaan Behardien’s 36 not out were the main contributions for Free State.

Keegan Petersen then stroked a confident 45 off 37 balls to set up a comfortable KZN chase, adding 74 for the first wicket with Grant Roelofsen (27).

David Miller then finished the game off with a quickfire 34 not out off 22 deliveries.

Reasons why Mark Boucher sleeps easy going into the T20 World Cup

The middle-order batting is sorted – Batting in the subcontinent is easiest up front against the harder ball, so a strong middle-order is vital. It is also where South Africa have lost the most experience recently, with Faf du Plessis, Rilee Rossouw, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy and Farhaan Behardien all missing from the last T20 World Cup squad. But Rassie van der Dussen scored a brilliant, matchwinning, unbeaten century against Pakistan this week, showing how effective he is at accelerating after a somnolent start, Aiden Markram’s talent in white-ball cricket is starting to come through, and David Miller is in form and has played some rousing innings this year.

The Proteas have excellent spinners – Spinners are the dominant bowlers in T20 cricket these days, especially on the subcontinent. And South Africa have an excellent trio of left-arm slow bowlers to turn to. The unorthodox Tabraiz Shamsi is having an exceptional year and is No.1 in the T20 rankings for good reason, controlling the middle overs superbly. Keshav Maharaj is pure class when it comes to control of pace and length and can bowl up front or in the middle overs. Bjorn Fortuin has made his mark in the powerplay and has a fine record of 14 wickets in 13 T20 internationals and an economy rate of just 6.58.

Proteas have an excellent pressure game – The favourites for this World Cup – England, India and the West Indies – have not been shy to advertise their intent to aim for complete dominance with the bat, smashing as many boundaries as possible. But on sluggish, increasingly tired pitches, this could also get them into trouble. The Proteas – a bit like the Springboks – have shown that they are very good at playing a pressure game. As the win in the West Indies showed, a team that just chases boundaries and does not look after the ones and twos, can implode against the strangling South African attack and their sharp fielding.

Why Mark Boucher is tossing & turning at night ahead of the T20 World Cup

Previous World Cup selection dramas – There has been choking and there has been some unfortunate tomfoolery when it comes to selection at these premier cricket events in the past and Boucher, as a veteran of several of these campaigns as a player, will be keenly aware of those. Given that South Africa are underdogs at this tournament, they will need to be at their best and there is little room for error if they are to contend for the title. There could well be crucial selections that need to be made, such as when it comes to the bowling attack: If the Proteas are to continue to play both Shamsi and Maharaj, then only two of Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje and Lungi Ngidi will be able to play. Nortje was probably the best of those bowlers in the recently-completed IPL on the same grounds, but will he be selected?

Do Proteas have a false sense of their own ability? – The Proteas certainly seem to be peaking at the right time, beating Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Ireland and the West Indies on their way to the World Cup. The ease with which they dispatched Sri Lanka at home was particularly impressive, but the West Indies and Pakistan are both famously inconsistent. South Africa are yet to play one of the big guns during their winning run.

Is there too much pressure on Quinton de Kock? – It is almost certain that if the Proteas are to challenge for the title then Quinton de Kock, their leading batsman, is going to have to have a great tournament. De Kock only passed 50 once in the second leg of the IPL and, by the end of their campaign was being left out of the Mumbai Indians starting XI. But his pedigree is undoubted. The only thing maybe holding him back from his usual daring self is the sometimes fragile nature of the Proteas batting. Hopefully he can put those worries aside and be the dominator we know he can be.

Only a run-out prevented spinners Senuran Muthusamy and Prenelan Subrayen from the unprecedented feat of both finishing the match with 10-wicket hauls as the Dolphins won the 4-Day Domestic Series final in extraordinary fashion at Kingsmead on Monday, beating the Titans by an innings and 76 runs.

The Titans were bowled out for 166 towards the end of the extended morning session on Monday, a vast improvement on their miserable 53 all out in the first innings, but still nowhere near enough to prevent the Dolphins from claiming the title outright.

Slow left-armer Muthusamy was the second-innings destroyer, taking six for 79 in 28.2 overs, giving him match figures of nine for 91. Off-spinner Subrayen claimed four for 56 in 38 overs, giving him 10 for 80 in the match.

It is the first time in South African first-class history that two bowlers from the same side have taken 19 wickets in a match. The other Titans wicket fell to a run out.

With almost the entire first two days of play being lost to the weather, it seemed something miraculous would have to occur for an outright result to be achieved.

The Dolphins had that magic in their kitbags though, their two magnificent spinners being accurate and relentless, backed by superb fielding, led by wicketkeeper Mangaliso Mosehle, Keegan Petersen’s catching up close and Ruan de Swardt in the ring.

The Titans batsmen just did not have the skill and intent available to them to break the stranglehold, although Rivaldo Moonsamy showed good fight on Monday as he scored 41 in two hours at the crease.

The Dolphins have been the dominant team in the domestic season, claiming two (one shared) of the three trophies available to them and reaching the T20 final.

The broad bats of Sarel Erwee and Marques Ackerman defied the Titans for more than three hours but a jumbo-sized effort by Titans spinners Kyle Simmonds and Neil Brand then pegged the Dolphins back to 258 for seven at stumps on the third day of the 4-Day Series final at Kingsmead on Saturday.

After heavy rain meant just 10 overs of play were possible on the first two days, an absorbing day’s cricket finally began an hour into the third day. Seamer Dayyaan Galiem moved the ball around intelligently in the first hour and claimed the early wicket of Keegan Petersen for 16, bringing Erwee and Ackerman together on 47 for two.

They faced a challenging morning session but showed enormous application as they put on 135 for the third wicket. Erwee, solid and compact, was immense in scoring 100, while Ackerman overcame a really scratchy start to score an impressive 74.

Left-arm spinner Simmonds, on his Titans debut, dismissed both set batsmen – Erwee was bowled by a delivery that surprised him by turning sharply into the left-hander, while Ackerman was deceived in the flight and struck a firm return catch to the 27-year-old. Simmonds ended the day with two for 95 in 24 overs, a good effort.

Brand, also a left-arm spinner, then dismissed Eathan Bosch (12), Theunis de Bruyn taking a wonderful reflex catch at slip, and Mangaliso Mosehle, lbw for a duck, in successive overs to close with excellent figures of two for 18 in 13 overs.

Khaya Zondo looked promising in scoring 21, but he sometimes errs in getting out in soft ways and he did that again on Saturday, clipping a Thando Ntini half-volley on his pads straight to square-leg.

Ruan de Swardt (18*) and Prenelan Subrayen, who is yet to score, will continue the Dolphins first innings on the penultimate day.