Johannesburg – 18 November 2025:
The CSA T20 Challenge enters its final week of round-robin action on Wednesday and this very young DP World Lions team still has an outside chance of qualifying for the playoffs as they host the Dragons at the DP World Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg.
Seven of the DP World Lions squad have played less than six matches in the senior T20 competition, due to the huge number of players that #ThePrideOfJozi supplies to the Proteas and SA A squads that are currently on tour in India.
Nevertheless, if the DP World Lions can win their last three games – v Dragons (home), Western Province (away) and Dolphins (away) – then they can still sneak into the top four and qualify for the Eliminator. This depends on the Titans beating the Dolphins at SuperSport Park on Friday, and collecting bonus point wins will only strengthen the defending champions’ hand.
Our seasoned head coach, Russell Domingo, is pleased that they are still in contention after a tough start to the competition. Their weekend washout against the Titans at Centurion giving them their first two points on the log, and is trying not to put too much pressure on his new-look side.
“We have a host of young players, seven of them made their T20 debuts for us, and I don’t want to be too harsh on them. We are not far off but we just haven’t played the big moments well. We probably should have won the first two matches.
“Everything can improve. We’ve been okay with the ball, just a couple of bad overs have cost us. There have been some decent performances with the bat, but no-one has really gone on to a big score. The fielding has been pretty average, but these are young guys.
“But the players are still upbeat and it’s been a great learning experience for them. Every game is obviously very important now and we have the same group of players for this week. With so many players away and the U19s writing matric exams, we don’t have too many options,” Domingo says.
The Dragons went down by seven runs against the Titans in a thriller in Potchefstroom last week, a result which saw them drop down to sixth in the standings. But they don’t lose many players to national call-ups and Domingo warns that they will be a tough proposition, even at the DP World Wanderers Stadium.
“They are a very good team, they are settled, and we know they have a lot to play for as well,” Domingo says.
North-West are a dangerous white-ball side, more than the sum of their parts. That makes them similar to the two sides that the DP World Lions dropped points to in their previous home games – Boland and the KZN Inland Tuskers – albeit in narrow defeats.
Against Boland, with the ball flying around on a sporty pitch, the DP World Lions allowed their opposition to get to 138 and then the batting got stuck in the middle overs and finished poorly to end eight runs short.
Against the Tuskers, the last over went for 29 runs, which allowed the visitors to post 161 for five. Nevertheless, #ThePrideOfJozi seemed to have the chase well in hand when they needed 28 runs off four overs with seven wickets in hand, Rassie van der Dussen having blazed 44 off 30 balls. Even when Reeza Hendricks was dismissed for a composed 61 off 44 deliveries, just 15 runs were needed off 13 balls with six wickets in hand. But the Lions still fell two runs short.
“It’s just been big mistakes at key times, but that’s the sort of thing we would expect to turn around this week,” Domingo says.