Review: SA20 players impress in CSA T20 Challenge (week 1)

BREVIS THE STANDOUT AMONG SA20 PLAYERS IN POTCH

Grant Roelofson, Ethan Bosch and Dewald Brevis were among the early SA20 drafted players to impress after the opening week of the CSA T20 Challenge drew to a conclusion in Potchefstroom on Sunday.

The three-week long tournament, being hosted in its entirety by the North West university town, has gotten off to a damp start with six out of the 14 games so far affected by the weather.

However, many of the players who will be part of South Africa’s exciting inaugural SA20 season that begins in January have impressed when the opportunities were presented to them.

Top of the batting list has been Hollywoodbets Dolphins opener Roelofsen with an impressive 143 runs in his three innings at a strike rate of 141.58, while the country’s latest cricketing sensation Brevis of the Momentum Multiply Titans hasn’t been too far behind having struck 127 runs in four innings at 139.56. Sandwiched between them is Proteas' one-day international star, Janneman Malan with 128 runs at 131.95.

Nineteen-year-old Brevis of course has his legbreaks to offer too and the teenager dubbed ‘Baby AB’ – based on his similarity to the great AB de Villiers – has taken five wickets at next to nothing to go with his runs. He is one behind the leaders on six, among them being his teammate Junior Dala and the Dolphins’ Bosch.

A total of 40 players out of the 43 who will be playing in the blockbuster new league have featured at least once so far. The three exceptions are Christiaan Jonker, Sisanda Magala and Sarel Erwee.

There have also been some exciting cameos from expensive auction wildcard picks such as Donavon Ferreira and Evan Jones.

A KEY HAND

Opener Roelofsen has undoubtedly led the way in terms of runs, but the all-round Brevis was not too far behind him. The former hit scores of 68 (42 balls), 9 and 66 (48) in his three innings, although the Dolphins only won once when he failed.

Brevis on the other hand has played a key hand in four out of four wins for the Titans. He struck a less-than-fluent 57 off 44 balls in game one, where he also took one for 20, against the Dolphins and then blasted 30 off 17 in the Jukskei derby versus the DP World Lions – a match in which he also claimed two for 19.

As the week progressed, Brevis, a player that Mumbai Indians Cape Town secured even before the September 19 auction, finally failed with a duck in a rain-reduced game against Six Gun Grill Western Province in which he took two for 13 with the ball, before taking one for nine and hitting 40 off 28 in another win over North West Dragons as his stock continued to climb even further.

Province opener Malan, the other man in the runs during the first week, hit scores of 60 (43), 68* (52) and 0. Rounding up the top five are surprise package Jordan Hermann (135 runs), who was not picked for the SA20, and Wiaan Mulder of the Lions. The Proteas allrounder was in brilliant form all season playing for Leicestershire in County Cricket and continued that rich form by delivering scores of 55 (41), 29 and 31* in three innings for an aggregate of 115 runs. Mulder also has three wickets to date.

CRUCIAL WICKETS IN NAIL-BITER

Other SA20-bound players to have delivered noteworthy performances were Matthew Breetzke after he crunched 61* (33) for Dafabet Warriors in the only really nail-biting game of the week, a three-run triumph over Gbets Rocks which saw 165 for four play 162 for six. Malan’s top-score of the week was part of the losing chase in that match.

In the same game, Ziyaad Abrahams, who will also feature for Mumbai, bagged a crucial three for 35.

Overall among the bowlers, Dolphins’ seamer Bosch has an impressive six wickets at a miserly economy rate of 4.54. Not many bowlers concede so few in T20s these days and his performances will undoubtedly please his team in the new competition, the Pretoria Capitals.

Dala of the Titans has the same number of sticks, but he got them at almost three runs more to the over (7.46). Two other bowlers have six wickets – Aubrey Swanepoel of the ITEC Knights and the Lions’ Lutho Sipamla – but both have not been signed by the SA20 teams.

FIVE WICKETS

Brevis is among five players with five wickets, two of the others also being part of the new league in Titans teammate Ayabulela Gqamane and the impressive Jones of the Lions.

The latter is an allrounder and was surprisingly signed for 1.7 million by Paarl Royals and has so far shown his potential by taking his wickets for just 68 runs in 12 overs. Together with this, he has also recorded 70 runs in two innings.

The other unexpected signing at the auction, wicketkeeper Ferreira who sold for a tasty R5.5 million, is striking the ball at 168.18, even though he only has 70 runs. His strike rate is the best among batsmen who have scored more than that tally.

For the record, the Titans lead the standings with 18 points after four wins from four thus far, followed by the Rocks who are 10 behind them. WP are the only pointless team in the competition.

SA20 Players in each squad (43 in total):

GBETS ROCKS (6): Janneman Malan, Ferisco Adams, Leus Du Plooy, Shaun Von Berg, Imran Manack, *Christiaan Jonker.

MOMENTUM MULTIPLY TITANS (7): Theunis de Bruyn, Corbin Bosch, Aya Gqamane, Donovan Ferreira, Junior Dala, Simon Harmer, Dewald Brevis.

SIX GUN GRILL WESTERN PROVINCE (5): Beuran Hendricks, George Linde, Junaid Dawood, Kyle Verreynne, Nandre Burger.

HOLLYWOODBETS DOLPHINS (8): *Sarel Erwee, Eathan Bosch, Grant Roelofsen, Jon Jon Smuts, Daryn Dupavillon, Marques Ackerman, Prenelan Subrayen, Ottneil Baartman.

NORTH WEST DRAGONS (4): Delano Potgieter, Duan Jansen, Caleb Seleka, Wesley Marshall.

DAFABET WARRIORS (3): Wihan Lubbe, Ziyaad Abrahams, Matthew Breetzke.

DP WORLD LIONS (8): Ryan Rickelton, Cameron Delport, Mitchell Van Buuren, *Sisanda Magala, Wiaan Mulder, Evan Jones, Malusi Siboto, Codi Yusuf.

ITEC KNIGHTS (2): Gerald Coetzee, Migael Pretorius.

*denotes player has not played an games so far