16 April 2025, Johannesburg

It took an incredible innings of great nous to deny our DP World Lions victory in the CSA 4-Day Series final, but bowling coach Allan Donald was full of praise for #ThePrideOfJozi’s attack for what he described as an “awesome” effort with the ball.

On an easy-paced pitch that definitely became easier to bat on on the last day of the final, the DP World Lions managed to bowl the Titans out twice, for 123 and then, in their follow-on, for 371. With #ThePrideOfJozi having scored 413 for seven declared in their first innings, that left the visitors only 81 runs ahead, but with four sessions of play lost at the start of the game due to a wet outfield, and bad light cutting off at least another half-hour on each of the three previous days of action, there was simply not enough time for the Lions to chase that small target. So they had to settle for the draw and a share of the trophy.

“Looking at the pitch before the game, I knew it would be a belter from my days of playing Test cricket at the DP World Wanderers Stadium,” Donald said. “So to bowl the Titans out twice was a great effort and I’m super-proud of the bowlers. It was a marathon effort, they spent two days in the field, bowling 175 overs. It was awesome to see them keep going the way they did.

“But Lhuan-dre Pretorius played an immense innings beyond his years, the maturity he showed to bat for more than five hours and score 114 was beyond belief. I haven’t seen a 19-year-old do that before, he batted unbelievably well. He looked so in his bubble, unfazed, and he can change gears too. He really showed great savvy and everyone should look out for him now.

“The guys looked a bit dejected at tea, but we keep talking about the need to keep pushing, we play to international standards and you don’t quit in Test cricket. So then Bjorn Fortuin got him out sweeping and we went bang-bang to open the door. It was an immense effort by the bowlers,” Donald said.

While our DP World Lions bowlers had to toil on the final day, the way they ran through the Titans top-order on the third evening was the stuff of dreams, like the kind of rousing performance you see in sports films. The visitors were reduced to 17 for three in their first innings as Codi Yusuf, Lutho Sipamla and Fortuin piled on the pressure.

“The Titans must have thought there was more in the pitch after the first innings. But it had been exposed for a day-and-a-half and the way we responded with the ball after the great performance of the batsmen in scoring at nearly four runs-an-over and going big once, was so good. Sometimes in that position you can get greedy, but there was no searching for wickets and the exceptional start was down to the bowlers bowling in partnerships. I was stoked with that display and it really opened up their innings,” Donald said.