CSA T20 Challenge Team of the Tournament

The XI I selected was not an easy one, especially in the bowling department, which just shows the wider pool of talent that is available in South African cricket.

As is expected however it was dominated by the two finalists the Dolphins and the Titans. The likes of Dayyan Galiem, Simon Harmer,  Prenalen  Subrayen and perhaps Theunis De Bruyn can feel a little unlucky.

Grant Roelofsen – Dolphins (c ), (wk)

The tournament’s leading run scorer Grant Roelofsen has been in frightening form this season and even though the Dolphins started slowly, losing two of their opening three games his own good form wasn’t that much of a surprise. He has spent a very successful couple of months playing white ball cricket for Essex in the UK where he averaged 77. 

This form continued the moment he arrived back home with a 68 off 42 against last season’s CSA T20 Challenge champions the Titans, an innings that was full of a wide array of shots based more on timing than brute force. His best innings in this tournament though was his 91 off 49 balls against the Warriors, the tournament’s highest innings score and it definitely deserved to be a century. 

If it weren’t for Dewald Brevis’s extraordinary innings he would have been the talk of the tournament, as well as having hit the most sixes in the tournament but still finished with an exemplary twelve.

Dewald Brevis – Titans

Unsurprisingly, Dewald has been a class above in this tournament, after all, you don’t really get picked up by the IPL if you can’t play. Everyone rightly will be talking about his mammoth 162 off 57 against the Knights but he has made runs throughout the tournament. What separated him from everyone else was his balance at the wicket in a frenetic format of the game, his ability to keep his head still the moment the bowler releases the ball as well as being able genuinely to hit the ball to every inch of the Senwes Park Oval.

As much as he loves to hit through the V he doesn’t seem to have any weaknesses; short fast deliveries went into the stands just as far as those that were pitched up or low full tosses. He is a once-in-a-generation talent and will be playing for the Proteas very soon. His leg spin was also very effective as he finished with seven wickets at an economy of 7.5 an over.

Jacques Snyman – Knights

The Knights were hamstrung by absentees more than any other side in this tournament, being without Rilee Rossouw who is in Australia and his replacement Joshua Cobb due to visa problems. That said it has been welcome to see Jacques Snyman back in the runs after what was a disappointing 2021 for him. He made only one fifty during the tournament but he “failed” just once with a 16 at a run a ball in a game in which he didn’t need to go to second gear.

He scored consistently throughout with a lowest score of 25 and highest of 53 in his last five innings of the tournament with a strike rate of 159. It looked like the new Knights coach has given him new life after a substandard last season.

It’s not impossible for him to return to the Proteas side in T20s if he continues with this form.

JJ Smuts – Dolphins

JJ had a slow start to the tournament, especially with the bat making two single-figure scores but when it mattered at the back end of the tournament he came to the fore and very nearly took his team to the title. He made a superb 69 off 50 balls in the final and picked up 2/25 with the ball. In all, he picked up eleven wickets in the tournament all the while going for 6.18 runs per over and scoring 168 runs at a strike rate of 127.

Donovan Ferreira – Titans

Ferreira in his two games against the tournament finalists the Dolphins scored a combined 64 off 38 balls. On those performances alone he deserves to be in this XI but he made runs in most of the games he played. However, his 40 off 25 balls with the Titans looking like losing will be the innings people will remember, as it determined the outcome of the final. 

He finished the tournament with 155 runs at a strike rate of 168.47 while averaging 25.83.

Wiaan Mulder – Lions

Wiaan didn’t have good numbers in T20 cricket despite his obvious talent leading into this tournament but he corrected that this time around. After a very successful white-ball county cricket season with Leicestershire during South Africa’s winter, he continued that form in a Lions side that didn’t perform to its usual high standards. Wiaan averaged 51.50 with a strike rate of 140.13 and was more than useful with the ball where his economy was 7.21. 

His batting, which is the area that he needed to improve on, was a joy to witness. He was consistent throughout with the bat but his best performance was probably his 52 off 34 balls against Western Province in what was a must-win game for the Lions to try to make the semi-finals.

Clyde Fortuin – Rocks

Clyde had a decent 2021 T20 Challenge from which to build on and he did that brilliantly under the tutelage of Rocks Head Coach JP Duminy. He has seen the positive side of getting himself in before moving up the gears in an innings, which he didn’t do last season.

He finished the tournament with a strike rate of 144 that included 43 off 27 balls against Western Province and a superb 57 off 29 balls against North West that included five 6’s where he took a special liking to their captain Senuran Muthusamy.

Bamanye Xenxe – Rocks

There are so many superlatives to describe Bamanye’s performances but to put it simply he was the find of the tournament.  His former coach at Mpumalanga Rhinos, Gordon Mattheson described him last season as being in some ways similar to Lance Klusener and that he was ready for Division 1 cricket. In this tournament alone that assessment is not wrong.

From a bowling point of view, you can see the genuine talent is there, his changes in pace, his ability to bowl quicker than he looks, while no batter at any time of the tournament was able fully to cope with him.  

Prior to the final which Boland didn’t play in, he was the tournament’s leading wicket-taker, finishing with 18 wickets at an economy of 7.75 but his strike rate was his key asset, a phenomenal 8.5, which was better than anyone else in the tournament.

Gerald Coetzee – Knights

Gerald has bowled with real pace and intensity and it’s been great to see. What he has also found under the new coaching leadership at the Knights is consistency in line and length to go along with that raw pace. It makes his return to form with the ball all the more important for him and his team. 

His batting was also quite remarkable as he finished the tournament with a strike rate of 207 that included a 26 off 11 balls against the Lions and a 37 off 11 against the Titans including six 6’s. He became in effect a bowling all-rounder with these innings and is a large reason why the Knights had in many ways a successful tournament.

Ottneil Baartman – Dolphins

Ottneil is the lifeblood of the Dolphins’ bowling attack and this tournament was no different. He bowled them back into games when the team was struggling. His 5/14 against the Warriors was in numbers very impressive but wasn’t his best performance with the ball. That was his 2/30 against the Lions that included the dismissals of Wiaan Mulder and Evan Jones when they were looking to put huge pressure on the Dolphins and up the ante. 

Overall Baartman finished second in terms of wickets taken and once again made it known that if higher honours should be available he is ready for the call. He bowled superbly at the death as well in the tournament.

Aaron Phangiso – Titans

He might be 38 years old now but he is playing like 20-something at the moment. Without him, I don’t think the Titans would have won the tournament. He has played a very important part as a bowler who has taken twelve wickets with an economy rate that was under six an over. 

His guile as a spinner who knows his game well has been stunning and he was arguably the best spin bowler of the tournament.

12th man Eathan Bosch – Dolphins

Eathan Bosch simply had to find a way into this team somehow as he has been a revelation this tournament. He was given the extra responsibility by opening the bowling and responded just as the Dolphins coach would have wanted him to. His 2/3 against the Warriors was a magnificent bowling performance where he was able to swing the ball both ways. 

It’s this swing that has been a great weapon for him as he was able to trouble most batters in the opening power play in each game.