Johannesburg – 26 March 2026:
The big fish may have eluded our DP World Lions Ladies team in terms of trophies, but one can only be complimentary about a campaign in which they topped the regular-season standings in both the 50-over and T20 competitions.
Usually, topping the log confers the privilege of playing the final at home, and that would have meant playing both finals at our DP World Wanderers Stadium fortress. But this season, the tournament sponsors, chose to play the deciders at their home base, alongside the ocean at Kingsmead in Durban.
Coastal venues play very differently to those on the Highveld, and Western Province, who had also played the Dolphins in Durban the weekend before, adapted better to the conditions than our DP World Lions ladies did.
The batters, in particular, found the challenging bowler-friendly conditions too uncomfortable to handle, which was unfortunately a familiar problem this season.
So most of the plaudits for individual performances this 2025/26 season will go to the bowlers, who were magnificent. It is a measure of how effective they were as a unit, not relying on individual brilliance, that no-one finished in the top-10 wicket-takers for the Pro50 but two were in the top-10 of the averages.
Left-armer Relebohile Mkhize was always a threat up front with the new ball and took nine wickets in her five matches, at an average of just 14, while spinner Raisibe Ntozakhe enjoyed another brilliant season, taking 10 wickets at an average of 18.80.
The tall and bouncy Fay Cowling and spinners Sarah Nettleton and Kgomotso Rapoo took seven wickets each, with low averages and economy rates.
The batting relied heavily on Sunette Viljoen-Louw and Jenna Evans in the middle-order, both of them showing great determination in situations when #ThePrideOfJozi were in trouble. The evergreen Viljoen-Louw scored 273 runs (the fourth most in the competition) in just nine innings, averaging 39.00, sixth best in the tournament. Young Evans scored 247 runs at an average of 30.87, good enough to finish 16th in the averages.
Mkhize’s magnificent season was highlighted by her performance in the 20 Over Series as she finished top of the averages with 10 wickets at the ridiculously low average of just 9.40.
Ntozakhe was second with 14 wickets – joint second-most in the tournament – at an average of just 10.85.
While they were the superstars of the bowling, the rest of the attack provided beautiful support. Cowling was sixth in the averages with seven wickets at 12.71; Rapoo claimed 10 scalps at 18.60 to finish 12th and fellow spinner Nettleton was 16th with eight wickets at 21.87.
The 42-year-old Viljoen-Louw was absolutely blameless when it came to the batting problems and her T20 form was even more impressive than her brilliant 50-over season. The former Olympian finished third in the averages with the fifth-most runs as she gathered 242 at an average of 60.50 and a strike-rate of 97.97.
Teenager Neo Molefe showed promise with two half-centuries in her tally of 167 runs, finishing 18th in the overall averages.
Coach Sandile Masengemi was obviously bitterly disappointed to finish his first season in charge without silverware, despite finishing first on the log in both competitions, but he said our DP World Lions can still go into next season with confidence.
“It was very disappointing to be top of the log in the one-day and T20 but go home without anything. Obviously the batting was a worry the whole season because we had a lot of young and inexperienced players in the top-order, but our middle-order batters played a big part in getting us into the finals. But that dependence was exposed in the final when the pressure was on.
“We had a lot of bowling options and they have all done well, but we didn’t have the same options in the batting. But we can now see the gaps that we need to plug for next season and I’m very proud overall of how we went about our business to top both logs. There were a lot of positives.
“We were able to give opportunities to players and hopefully they find their feet. We will look to improve certain areas and game awareness was lacked in the batting, so that will need a lot of work. But the bowlers were outstanding and that’s a good space to be because we have different types of bowlers, so we can be effective no matter where we play, in terms of conditions,” Masengemi said.
The new head coach asked his players at the start of the season to be true to themselves but to also play as a team, with unity.
“I knew it would a tough season and I did not expect us to finish top in both formats. I wanted to create a good environment, I’m big on that. I encouraged the players to be themselves but said we must all work towards one direction. Everyone gets a voice and we wanted an environment everyone wants to be part of, and I think we’ve set a good base for that.
“We’ve seen players grow. We wanted to keep the young players in and give them opportunity, throw them in the deep end a bit to let them swim. I’m glad we did that and now we see where the gaps are and where we need to improve. Overall I’m very happy and proud of the team,” Masengemi said.