Ken Borland

DP World Lions men’s coach Russell Domingo is backing his star players to once again stand up for our team as they go into Sunday’s CSA T20 Challenge final hunting for back-to-back titles.

Having topped the round-robin log and then convincingly beaten the second-placed Momentum Multiply Titans in Qualifier I, #ThePrideOfJozi went straight through to the final at the DP World Wanderers Stadium from 2pm on Sunday, and now they are just waiting for the final Qualifier to be played to decide whether their opponents will be the Titans or World Sports Betting Western Province.

It’s been another stellar campaign for the Pride, with Rassie van der Dussen, Reeza Hendricks and all-rounder Evan Jones in the top-10 of the batting averages and Junaid Dawood, the competition’s leading wicket-taker, Nqaba Peter and Kwena Maphaka making up the top three in the bowling averages.

“Particularly in the big games, you need your senior players to stand up. Reeza is producing some fantastic batting and Rassie is playing very well at the moment, he’s in really good touch,” Domingo said.

“Kwena is only 18, he’s a baby really in cricket terms, writing his matric exams, but he’s already a match-winner for us. He showed in that second-last over in Potch, how good his ability and maturity is at the death. He’s a fantastic asset for us – he can take early wickets and bowl at the death.

“Nqaba is a quality bowler too. There will be days when he is not 100%, but he’s also a match-winner who we back because when he has a good day, he’s spectacular. Junaid has also been fantastic, he’s put in a lot of effort, stayed patient and I’ve been very pleased with his bowling.

“The enthusiasm Evan brings is amazing, he has a great presence, he’s aggressive with bat and ball. He’s had a few niggles previously but now he’s in good shape and is a big player for us. He’s one of the first names on the team-sheet,” Domingo said.

Big-match temperament is not something on sale at the Wanderers Stadium Sports Shop and Domingo is pleased that our Pride once again seem to be peaking at the right time. Their seven-wicket win over the Titans with four overs to spare was an immaculate all-round performance.

“That was close to the perfect game, the fielding and bowling were particularly good. We’ve worked really hard on those things and I’m very pleased that we are arriving at our best cricket at the business end of the competition.

“The standard has been set and now it all comes down to what happens on the day. If we play the Titans, then they have so many match-winners, someone like Heinrich Klassen, who has just been retained for R50 million in the IPL. But at the end of the day, we are all human and it comes down to who executes better on the day, which team is calmer under pressure.

“Western Province have won four in a row and are also really peaking at the right time. They are a very dangerous, very streetsmart side and they know what it takes to win trophies,” Domingo said.

And so do the DP World Lions and the host of match-winning stars that make up the Pride.

A few years ago, Proteas all-rounder Sune Luus was in the throes of a terrible time in her career, battling a loss of form and confidence, as well as injury. But now the Pretoria-born star says she is rejuvenated and looking forward to a bright new future with the South African women’s team having a new coach in Mandla Mashimbyi.

Between the summers of 2020 and 2021, Luus scored just 108 runs in eight ODI innings, and in eight T20 knocks in 2021 and 2022, she scored just 88 runs. The leg-spinner also struggled with the ball: In T20s between 2021 and 2023, she bowled just 20 overs, conceding 159 runs and taking only two wickets. From 2023 to the winter of 2024, she did not bowl at all in ODIs.

But her best form has returned as she scored 65 and an epic 109 in the one-off Test against India last year in Chennai and was the dominant batter in one-day cricket in the last domestic season, scoring 359 runs in six innings, at an average of 119, for the Titans. She has also regained confidence in her bowing by switching to off-spin and the 29-year-old was her team’s most economical bowler in the T20 competition.

“You’re always going to get ups-and-downs in your career and it was a tough time. I kinda came to the end of my bowling leg-spin, and it was always very important to me to be able to contribute in all three departments.

“We now have a new national coach in Mandla and he has slotted right in and brought a new energy. I really enjoy that because the way I specifically play my game, I like to play with energy and feed off the youngsters.

“Now that I’m in my 14^th year of international cricket, I’m playing with confidence again. I’m not going to be training as much, for me it’s about keeping in touch with my game and fine-tuning it. You need to back your skills. And when any of the youngsters come to me, hopefully I can add some of that confidence and mental strength to their games,” Luus told kenborland.com in an exclusive interview after she won the Titans Player of the Year award in Centurion.

While the South African women’s team has become much more of a force in world cricket since Luus started playing for the Proteas in 2012, they have not yet been able to win an ICC global event.

They reached the finals of both the 2023 and 2024 T20 World Cups, but lost to Australia and New Zealand respectively. In 2017 they reached the semifinals of the 50-over World Cup for the first time since 2000, and made the last four again in 2022.

“Obviously winning finals is now the next step we want to take as a team in this new era,” Luus said. “We’ve managed to get over our semifinals thing, but fallen short in two finals now. So we’ve managed to get stronger in winning semifinals, and now that we’ve been there in two finals, hopefully we can now win one of those too.

“I believe Mandla will help us get to that next level, winning trophies was one of his strengths when he was the coach of the Titans men’s team. The first T20 final we were in, it was kinda a case of just being chuffed to be there, but the second one we were really gunning for the win, but unfortunately New Zealand were just stronger than us on the day.

“We’ve never made the 50-over World Cup final and it’s now time to rectify that when the next tournament starts in September,” Luus said.

South African batting star Heinrich Klaasen hopes the impact sub rule used in the Indian Premier League never makes its way into international cricket, saying it negates the need for “smart batting”.

Klaasen steered the Proteas to victory in their opening T20 World Cup match in New York, a meagre target of 78 still requiring the batsmen to be at their sharpest on a treacherous pitch that saw the facilities at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium being criticised for producing a game that lacked entertainment value as the International Cricket Council seeks to reach new markets.

It was all a far cry from the recent IPL, in which strike-rates and totals reached all-time highs. Klaasen, the key finisher for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL, had to play clever cricket against Sri Lanka on a pitch with inconsistent but often steep bounce, and plenty of seam movement, finishing with 19 not out off 22 balls.

It was the sort of match that would have been near-impossible in the IPL with the impact sub rule allowing teams to bolster their batting line-up while not weakening their bowling attack. Klaasen told SportsBoom that he would not like to see the international game adopt the gimmick.

“The impact sub rule allowed batsmen to play with much more freedom and the execution was at a different level on pitches that were good. In the IPL, you are measured by the number of sixes you hit and your strike-rate, that’s your bread-and-butter and no-one worries about your average,” Klaasen said.

“But I hope the impact sub does not come into international cricket. It frees up the batting side too much and you can have a batsman at number nine with it, so there’s no need for anyone to hang around.

“It takes away the creativity of batting, it takes away smart batting. Like when Jos Buttler scored a superb century off 60 balls for Rajasthan Royals against Kolkata Knight Riders to chase down 224, having scored just 25 off his first 18 deliveries. The impact sub will take away that sort of brilliance to sum up conditions and hang around a bit, against just bombing the ball over small boundaries.

“It will allow teams to not play the situation so well. We also don’t get a lot of difficult pitches in the IPL, which is why the way teams go extremely hard in the powerplay is the big trend, and then the middle-order adjusts depending on whether you’re in trouble or flying,” Klaasen said.

While South Africa started their T20 World Cup campaign in impressive fashion against Sri Lanka, Lady Luck has not always been on their side in ICC events and they are yet to win one of the main trophies. Klaasen says the number of players they have with experience in the high-pressure IPL arena has helped them perform better in recent World Cups.

“We’ve got off to a very good start which means we can relax a bit and just keep building on that confidence. We need to focus on what we do best and keep that intensity.

“But the Netherlands have beaten us twice and Bangladesh can beat any team on their day, so we need to play the big moments well in those games.

“We’ve matured and gelled nicely as a team and a lot of the guys have played in the IPL, where there is a lot of pressure and expectation. We have been playing good World Cup cricket lately. Of the last three World Cups, we’ve only had one bad one, the 2022 T20 in Australia when we didn’t play well.

“But in Abu Dhabi in the 2021 T20 we only lost one out of five matches but missed out on the semi-finals on nett run-rate, and last year in India in the ODI World Cup, we played some unbelievable cricket to reach the semi-finals,” Klaasen said.

There’s a kind of maturity and boosted confidence that comes from having experienced playing at the highest level and one can tell the DP World Lions’ young star Karabo Meso has come back from her debut stint with the Proteas even better equipped to be a major contributor for the Pride going forward.

The 16-year-old Meso played in the recent series against Sri Lanka that was hosted in South Africa and, while her playing opportunities were limited to two T20s and a lengthy stint behind the stumps in the third ODI as a replacement for the injured Sinalo Jafta, she still had plenty of stories to share.

“Eish, it is a different level, especially in terms of how everything is managed. Being able to do things together with the other Proteas, you can see how those players manage their space. I could see how they get ready before a game, how they are the day before and how they are after the match,” Meso said.

“I was really happy to be there and I was able to learn lots of stuff. Experience-wise, while I was not playing I was able to sit with the coaches and just talk about the game. It was a great experience to have at a young age and I think I handled it nicely with all the support I had and my grounding at the DP World Lions,” Meso said.

Marizanne Kapp is one of South Africa’s all-time greats, but at 34 years old, she is very much part of a different generation to Meso. Kapp made her international debut back in 2009, when fax machines were still being used, but Meso and the veteran all-rounder were still able to connect.

“I was scared at first, but it was a very welcoming team,” Meso said of the Proteas. “I was able to sit with different players and I learnt a lot chatting to them. Like Marizanne, most people think she’s quite scary but she’s not, she’s actually very nice.

“I thought I wouldn’t be able to talk to her, but I ended up drinking coffee with her and she told me all about her first game and her experiences as a Protea, at the Big Bash and just how she manages her life.”

The Soweto resident was thrown into the deep end in the ODI series decider against Sri Lanka, having to replace fellow DP World Lions star Jafta behind the stumps in the closing stages. There were obviously nerves, but Meso bundled together all the advice and support she had received from her team-mates to handle herself with aplomb.

“It was quite an ODI intro! Things happen quickly at that level and you have to show that you are ready, no matter what. You have to be switched on, even though you’re not playing,” Meso said.

But being ready is a quality Meso has shown in abundance with the DP World Lions; coach Shaun Pretorius has never had to babysit her even though she made her debut when she was just a child.

“Karabo is a phenomenally good cricketer, especially mentally, her cricket understanding is so good. We forget that she was just 13 when she debuted for the Pride and she has grown a lot,” Pretorius said.

“She has such maturity and a really good head on her shoulders. She is strong-minded, firm in her belief in her game-plans and how she operates. Karabo wears her heart on her sleeve and whatever she does on the field she does with pride.

“She’s definitely one of the upcoming stars of the DP World Lions and Proteas set-ups and her recent success is testament to all the hard work Karabo has put in.

“But most importantly she is just such a good human being, you just want to be in her space and feed off her energy and positivity. We are all very proud of Karabo at the DP World Lions,” Pretorius said.

We are indeed.