The Wanderers has seen its share of six-hitting extravaganzas, but New Year’s Day offered something new: the inaugural Super Over of the SA20. Joburg Super Kings and Durban’s Super Giants both finished their 20 overs on 205, forcing the tie-breaker. Up stepped Richard Gleeson, who conceded a mere five runs before his batters knocked the target off with a minimum of fuss, nudging JSK to the top of the table.
“You don’t want easy wins each game. They are great but it’s moments like these where you are under pressure and you have to fall back on your skills, which gives you great confidence as a bowler,” Gleeson said afterwards. “That’s the big bit: trying to execute under pressure. You can practice as much as you want but when you get wet conditions, with the dew and you’re under pressure with the crowd, it is difficult. I’ve got a few techniques that we use with the psychologist and I’ve done it quite a bit in the past. I just call on that experience to try and keep calm and keep a clear mind.”
First Super Over, same old death skills
This was the first Super Over of Gleeson’s professional career, yet pressure situations are hardly new to the 38-year-old. In 2022 he closed out a tied Blast match for Lancashire, removing Harry Brook with the final ball. Since the start of that season only four bowlers with 400-plus deliveries at the death (overs 17-20) have been more economical than Gleeson’s 8.60, and Jasprit Bumrah sits at the top of that particular leaderboard. The numbers point to a specialist who knows his plans and trusts them.
Regular-time influence
Earlier in the evening Gleeson’s 3 for 41 kept JSK afloat. He bounced out Jos Buttler for 15, nipped out Aiden Markram when 38 were required from 21, and yorked David Wiese in the 19th over. Even so, parity at 205 felt about right on a punishing surface 1,700 metres above sea level.
The drop that didn’t matter
Gleeson’s Super Over nearly began in the worst possible fashion when Evan Jones lofted the first ball towards long-on—only for Matthew de Villiers to spill a straightforward chance. “[I thought], you’ve just dropped the match,” Gleeson joked. “But I backed myself. I knew I was executing and the next ball was the most important.”
That next delivery was a short, wide bumper after Gleeson spotted Buttler backing away. A pinpoint yorker followed, Buttler scraping a single. Jones inside-edged another to leg for one, Buttler received a second short ball he could only pull for a single, and a final yorker closed the set. Five runs, no boundaries, job done.
“The plans going into the Super Over were really simple: to try and execute the yorkers, try and get them to hit to the longer part of the boundary but not be too predictable,” he said. “I knew I had the short ball I could go to, pace off, so I just wanted to try and keep them guessing and have the batter thinking about two deliveries instead of just one.”
How the rest unfolded
Faf du Plessis and Leus du Plooy needed barely half the Super Over to polish off the chase, du Plessis depositing Reece Topley into the crowd before scampering the winning single. Earlier du Plooy’s 68 from 33 had underpinned Joburg’s 205, a total matched by DSG thanks to Buttler’s typically brisk 74.
Table impact and takeaways
JSK emerge with two points and a confidence boost; DSG take only one but remain firmly in the play-off mix. More importantly, the evening underlined why teams invest in specialist finishers. With pace off the ball now a go-to tactic in T20, genuine yorkers have become rarer—and therefore more valuable. Gleeson produced four of them in six deliveries when it counted most.
A note on conditioning
Bowling at altitude adds another layer of difficulty, particularly in a format that demands repeated maximum-effort sprints. Gleeson’s ability to hit speeds in the high 130s kph throughout indicated an off-season well spent. Pace alone, though, does not separate him; it is the willingness to use the bouncer as a change-up, not a default. Buttler, no stranger to inventive hitting, twice found himself cramped for room.
Looking ahead
Joburg’s next assignment is an away fixture in Cape Town, where evenings are cooler and the breeze can aid swing. Durban, meanwhile, head to Centurion needing to close out games they have largely controlled. For now, the picture is clear: in tight finishes, a calm mind and a full length remain timeless commodities.
