“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.”
As he delivered his second ball, Gleeson saw Buttler backing away and banged it in short and wide, away from where Buttler could connect with it well. He followed up with a yorker which Buttler could only squeeze away for one. Jones kept trying to swing big and inside-edged the next ball for one before Gleeson went short again to Buttler. He finished off with a yorker as DSG totalled just five and things had worked out exactly as Gleeson hoped they would.
“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.”
That Jones, who had earlier brought DSG back into the match with personal highest SA20 score of 43 off just 17 balls, could not get Gleeson away was testament to the bowler’s skills.
Jones’ strategy during his match-tying innings was simple: “It’s about standing still and make sure if the bowler misses, I cash in.”
The trouble was that Gleeson didn’t miss. “He bowled a great over,” Jones said, amid emotions that were running high “everywhere”.
Though disappointed with the result, Jones called the match “just great for cricket” and was not too down about DSG’s prospects especially as they came back from being dismissed for 86 by this same JSK side two days prior.
DSG are third on the table with one win from four games and remain confident of their chances in this competition. “We take this game as a good thing. We came quite close,” Jones said. “With the experience in our team, and a young fast bowler [Kwena Maphaka], we tick a lot of boxes. We’ll keep our heads down, play good cricket, and I am pretty sure the results will take care of themselves.”