Warriors crowned T20 champions in dramatic finish

On a day of nerve-sapping intensity and high drama, Warriors fast bowler Aphiwe Mnyanda grabbed the glory to bowl his team to victory in a Super Over against Boland in the final of the Cricket SA T20 Challenge on Sunday.

After the Warriors blew their chance to win the title in the regulation 20 overs in Paarl when, needing one run off four balls, they could not get over the line, the match finished in a tie — Boland ending with 142/6 and the Warriors 142/5 in response.

That happened after the visitors took themselves to the brink of success when, needing eight off the final over bowled by Aya Gqamane, Tristan Stubbs hit a six and a single off the first two balls.

It drew the sides level with four balls left but Gqamane showed immense courage to bowl Senuran Muthusamy with his next delivery and then denied new batsman JP King a run off the next three balls. The final ball went through to wicketkeeper Clyde Fortuin, who charged in and scored with a direct hit to run out Stubbs as he dived desperately to make his ground.

This meant it went to a Super Over to decide the 2025/26 champions. The Warriors again gave themselves a clear chance of victory when Stubbs and Jordan Hermann took 16 runs off the over, bowled by Ferisco Adams.

With Mnyanda entrusted with the task of defending that total, Adams was caught on the boundary off the first ball and the left-arm Warriors paceman, after one wide, found his line and length to concede only five more runs as Boland finished on 6/1.

It meant the Warriors clinched their first title in the Twenty20 competition since 2009-10 and their first domestic title since they shared the 50-over Momentum One-Day Cup with the Dolphins in 2017/18.

There were a number of heroes for the Warriors earlier in the day, none more so than Hermann, who made batting look easy on a slow and dry pitch, not easy for fluent strokeplay. His powerfully struck 74 off 53 balls (with nine fours and a six) set up the Warriors’ challenge. Stubbs (37) and Muthusamy (19) capitalised on that, only to falter at the final hurdle, before gaining a reprieve through the thrilling Super Over success.

The Boland innings was initially stunted by the outstanding spin bowling of Muthusamy and Thomas Kaber.

Opening the bowling, Muthusamy underlined his experience and skill as he took two wickets in the powerplay and conceded just 17 runs in three overs. He ended with 3/23.

Mixing up his pace and line, he proved difficult to get away — despite the best efforts of Fortuin and Grant Roelofsen, who adopted an aggressive approach from the outset. The left-arm spinner proved far too wily for a batting style that seemed to be based on high risk and high reward, dismissing Fortuin in the fourth over and Roelofsen two overs later.

Left-arm wrist spinner Kaber was equally effective, getting rid of the effective Gavin Kaplan for six as Boland slipped to 49/3. He conceded only eight runs in his first two overs and continued his mastery over the Boland batsmen later in the innings, finishing with 1/18 in four overs.

Boland found some relief late in the innings when Lehan Botha (51 off 45 balls) and Adams (32 off 24 balls) took 20 from an over bowled by Patrick Kruger. That boosted their total to 132/4 and it looked dangerous for the Warriors when Adams hit a six off the first ball of the final over by Wesley Bedja.

But the Warriors’ seamer hit back in courageous style to remove both Adams and Botha as Boland finished on 142/6.

The Herald