Johannesburg – 30 October 2025:
They say things change quickly in the digital world, but a week in the CSA 4-Day Series competition is enough to turn the entire standings on their head, as our DP World Lions have discovered in the last week.
After a marvelous start to the competition, featuring thumping away wins over archrivals Western Province and the Titans and a draw against the strong Dolphins team in Durban, our DP World Lions were top of the log.
But then they slipped up for a couple of hours in their first home game of the season, and it cost them dearly as the Dragons chased down a target of 147 with eight wickets to spare.
The match was like a microcosm of the competition itself as a dramatic afternoon on the second day saw the DP World Lions surrender an advantage they just could not regain – a last-wicket partnership of 85 between Dian Forrester and Alfred Mothoa gave the North-West team a first-innings lead of 17. The visitors then reduced the home side to 39 for four at stumps.
The defeat has seen the DP World Lions tumble down to fifth in the standings, but they are just 13.36 points behind the Dragons, who are the leaders. So just one win could see #ThePrideOfJozi back at the top, and two of their three remaining matches will be at home, against Boland and the KZN Inland Tuskers.
Coach Russell Domingo praised the alacrity with which our DP World Lions entered the four-day competition and said the defeat to North-West was a case of missed opportunities.
“We still have to play two teams that are ahead of us on the log – Boland and the Warriors – and the top four sides will play against each other a lot too. So, a lot can happen still; we saw that now when, in one round, we went from being top of the standings a week ago to fifth,” Domingo said.
“Our first three rounds were fantastic. Connor Esterhuizen and Delano Potgieter have been outstanding with the bat and the two openers coming in before them too: Dom Hendricks has scored four fifties in six innings and Josh Richards has played really well too. He was superb in the win over the Titans and hopefully that positivity continues. “So there have been good glimpses and signs from the batsmen and there have really been some positives with the bowing too. Siya Plaatjie took five wickets on debut and then another four against the Dragons.
He has a lot of potential although he still needs to find some consistency. But I’m really excited about his energy and pace, that’s what won the game for us against the Titans with his late-afternoon spell at Centurion. Beyers Swanepoel also took five wickets in the first innings against North-West.”
Amidst the daily fluctuations of the match against the Dragons, there was yet another magnificent partnership between Esterhuizen (100*) and Potgieter (77), who put on 152 for the sixth wicket. But no-one else reached double figures and Domingo agreed that the DP World Wanderers Stadium pitch had been a bit too spicy.
“With all the rain around in the lead-in to the game, there was always going to be a lot on offer and maybe we should have taken another millimetre off the grass, we got that wrong. But it was not a 163 all out pitch in the second innings.
“You have to give North-West a lot of credit; they played much better than us. But we were ahead of the game at one stage, we had them on the ropes when they were 147 for eight and then they had that last-wicket partnership. It was not all bad from us, but we dropped a few catches, Forrester twice early on. We just did not take our chances and the Dragons played really well,” Domingo said.