Ken Borland

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.

You can’t buy the sort of composure and experience that wins big games of cricket and DP World Lions coach Russell Domingo is confident that our star players will stand up and lead the way for the #PrideOfJozi when they host Sunday’s CSA T20 Challenge final against the HollywoodBets Dolphins.

Our DP World Lions breezed through their semi-final against derby rivals the Titans with a performance of great calm and quality, and Domingo expects the same mental strength to be on show against the Dolphins.

Proteas stars Rassie van der Dussen and Temba Bavuma were at the crease at the end steering our Pride to victory with the bat, with another international, Ryan Rickelton, setting the tone up front with his innings. Throw in the strong contributions through the tournament made by Wiaan Mulder, Bjorn Fortuin and Reeza Hendricks, and it is easy to see that the DP World Lions environment is a brilliant one, making it easy for youngsters like Nqaba Peter, Lutho Sipamla and Codi Yusuf to shine as well.

“It was a really good performance against the Titans,” Domingo agrees. “Semi-finals are often nerve-wracking, they can be harder to handle than the final itself. But we kept calm and composed.

“There is always a lot of expectation on us because we topped the log and we have a very good side, and in T20 cricket anything is possible. It was a really solid performance in the semi-final, but we cannot rest on our laurels.

“Rassie is scoring runs where it counts, he showed really good intensity against the Titans, and Temba is also playing well, I can see a big score just around the corner for him. You want your big names to perform in the big games and we will have to be close to our best to beat the Dolphins.

“But the big names are the guys who know under pressure that you don’t have to play 100% perfect cricket, you just need to play solid, do the basics really well, and stay calm and disciplined,” Domingo said.

The KwaZulu-Natal Coastal visitors will be bringing a team with experienced and canny campaigners of their own, and a powerful bowling attack, even without T20 ace Ottneil Baartman, who has joined Delhi Capitals in the IPL.

“They have a formidable pace attack with Okuhle Cele, Daryn Dupavillon and Andile Phehlukwayo, and a quality spinner in Prenelan Subrayen. They are also a very street-smart side, they know what it takes to win. Jason Smith, Khaya Zondo and Jon-Jon Smuts are also a key trio of very experienced players,” Domingo said.

But our Pride are playing at home at the DP World Wanderers Stadium and have only lost two of their eight matches there this campaign. And they beat the Dolphins there at the start of the month in their round-robin match, Yusuf and Rickelton leading them to victory by seven wickets with four balls to spare in a rain-shortened match.

Rickelton, Van der Dussen and Hendricks all feature in the top-12 of the tournament averages and have consistently given the DP World Lions solid starts. Delano Potgieter and Evan Jones are the six-hitters at the end of the innings and it is all brought together by Mulder, who is also in the top-20 of the averages and strikes at 126.97.

Leg-spinner Peter has been the outstanding bowler of the competition with 19 wickets in only nine matches, and has bowled with such potency that he averages just 7.78 and has twice taken four wickets in an innings, and also with such control that he has only conceded 5.19 runs-per-over.

Mulder has also been tight and effective with the ball, and that has allowed tremendous flexibility in terms of bowling options. Sipamla, Jones, Yusuf and Fortuin have served as a wonderful bowling unit, taking 55 wickets between them. Seamers Sipamla, Jones and Yusuf are all conceding little more than 7.5 runs-per-over, while Fortuin is the second-most economical bowler in the competition, at 5.84.

Our DP World Lions have quality through their line-up and their strengths cover whatever conditions or match situations are thrown at them. They are primed to peak under the pressure of Sunday’s final.

EDENVALE, Gauteng – Some subtle swing changes have seen Cara Gorlei jack up her game and the former amateur star from Cape Town is looking forward to contending strongly at this week’s Jabra Ladies Classic that tees off at Glendower Golf Club on Wednesday.

This is the final Sunshine Ladies Tour event before the lucrative co-sanctioned tournaments – the Joburg Ladies Open at Modderfontein and the SA Women’s Open at Erinvale – and Gorlei is also honing her game before she returns to campaigning full-time on the Ladies European Tour.

In between her LET commitments, the 28-year-old has finished tied-fifth in the Dimension Data Ladies Pro-Am at Fancourt and last week she showed ominous form as she fired a 66 in the final round to finish third in the Absa Ladies Invitational at Serengeti.

It is that sense that the changes to her swing are now bedded in and the similarities between Serengeti and Glendower that have Gorlei approaching the R1 million Jabra Ladies Classic with confidence.

“My coach, Doug Wood, and I have been working on some new moves, basically just my positions in my swing and where I need to be, and that seems to be coming a bit more naturally to me now,” Gorlei, a former SA Women’s Amateur champion, said.

“So I’m looking forward to playing the Jabra Ladies Classic this week and hopefully I can keep that momentum from the last day at Serengeti. Glendower is the same sort of course in the sense that you have to hit the fairways. The rough at Serengeti was super-thick and it can be pretty long at Glendower as well. With all the rain around, it could also be wet, so the course will play a bit longer, but we experienced that at Serengeti, so that won’t be something new,” Gorlei said.

The last two tournaments have seen the very fabric of the Sunshine Ladies Tour change with first Gabrielle Venter and then Casandra Alexander breaking the stranglehold overseas golfers had on the winner’s podium. Now, as the series stands poised to be woven into the Ladies European Tour, the foreign golfers are bound to push hard again for the top spots.

But just as Gorlei, 10^th on the Investec Order of Merit, raised her game at the end of the Absa Ladies Invitational, she says she is ready to push even harder as the South African campaign heads to its conclusion.

“For the first couple of events, the top South African golfers had other LET events that took them overseas, but now we are back and really keen to perform at home. I have a real drive to get that win.

“Any competitive golf helps and it’s nice to get a lot of rounds in before we start travelling again. After Modderfontein and the SA Open, we go to Korea. Germany and France, and it’s a long stretch of tournaments. But it’s nice to be at home because you can go and put the work in with your coach and there are other aspects that are good too,” Gorlei said.

South Africans have won five of the eight Jabra Ladies Classic tournaments played at Glendower, but the patterns of overseas success this season is shown on the Investec Order of Merit, where Scotland’s Kylie Henry leads and German Helen Kreuzer and Tvesa Malik of India are all in the top-five.

Alexander (6^th) is the defending champion at Glendower, while Venter (2^nd) and Lee-Anne Pace (3^rd) should also be strong South African contenders.