Johannesburg – 8 April 2026:
It’s always a terrible feeling losing a final to end the season, but our DP World Lions men’s team assistant coach Allan Donald says #ThePrideOfJozi can still be proud of the incredible cricket they once again produced in the 2025/26 campaign.
The DP World Lions were just edged out by three wickets with a ball to spare by neighbours the Titans in the CSA One-Day Cup final at the DP World Wanderers Stadium, key moments just not going their way in a gripping conclusion to the season.
Victory would have given the DP World Lions a second trophy this season, but, having won the CSA 4-Day Series and played in another final, it has still been a successful season for #ThePrideOfJozi. Especially if one considers that during the course of the campaign, they had 11 players away with the Proteas or the SA A side.
“We’ve played some amazing cricket this season, although we know we need to deliver in a final because that’s what gets recognised. In big moments, we made crucial errors. But that’s cricket and there are lessons to be learnt,” Donald said.
“But overall I would say it was a very good season and I take my hat off to the players. Especially in four-day cricket, we talk about playing Test cricket all the time in terms of intensity and to win three first-class titles in a row is a phenomenal achievement.
“It’s been about how we embrace a Test match approach and we’ve been talking for a long time about Test intensity and pressure, what it’s like to have that in every session. You need to break it down and keep coming. Our red-ball cricket has certainly grown and we know now how to shift in pressure situations, how to step up and attack.
“We set such high standards for ourselves and winning two trophies a season is almost expected now. I still think we had a fantastic season and winning five cups in the last three years is a huge achievement, especially when we’ve seen again that white-ball cricket can be so unpredictable,” Donald said. The great fast bowler also said aside from the team success, it was also wonderful to see individual players advance their careers over the last season.
“It’s nice to see so many personal achievements, guys signing for overseas leagues and getting picked for the Proteas. To see Connor Esterhuizen going to New Zealand and be Player of the Series was special. On his debut he goes over there and does that, and I think it shows there is a big possibility of him spending a lot of time in the Green and Gold.
“He is a very special player and he is just growing in stature. To think that two seasons ago he would be sitting in the dugout with me, carrying drinks most of the time. He’s developed into a fantastic cricketer,” Donald said. DP World Lions CEO Jono Leaf-Wright reminded The Pride in his Easter message that it is the bonds and the love between the Lions family that keeps them going, and one of the more poignant moments of the one-day final was to see Donald put a consoling arm around Codi Yusuf on the boundary after the spearhead of the attack had bowled a magnificent penultimate over, conceding just a single off the first five deliveries and taking the key wicket of Dayyaan Galiem, but then sadly being hit for a crucial six by Duan Jansen off the last ball of the over, meaning just five runs were needed off the final over.
“Codi has liked the around-the-wicket at the death option from the outset and you could not have asked for a better over, he was superb under immense pressure. And then unfortunately the monumental final ball just went wrong. He’s been brilliant all season and I just didn’t feel he should be alone in that moment,” Donald said, epitomising the care factor that the all-star DP World Lions coaching staff bring to the team.