Warriors crowned YesPlay Pro20 champions

The Dafabet Warriors cemented their status as the T20 kings of South African domestic cricket after defeating the DP World Lions by 36 runs, to be crowned the 2026/27 YesPlay Pro20 Cup champions as the tournament reached its climax on Saturday night.

After more than 50 days of competition and 75 matches which combined Division 1 and Division 2 teams from all over the country, only two were left to fight for the right to be called the inaugural winners of the competition – the last two winners of the CSA T20 Challenge.

Having just defeated the YesPlay Cobras in the second semi-final at YesPlay Newlands, the Lions won the toss and elected to field first and would have been delighted to remove both Warriors openers Jordan Hermann and Sibonelo Makhanya early in the Warriors’ innings for 24 and 17 respectively.

But they soon toiled hard as JP King and Matthew de Villiers came together for a damaging 130-run partnership, finishing on 73 and 71 to put their team in the driving seat in the decider.

Patrick Kruger’s unbeaten 29 was also key to their healthy 219-run total, setting their opponents a tall order with the trophy on the line.

In reply the Lions suffered an early fall of wickets as Richard Seletswane wasn’t able to replicate the heroics of earlier in the day, this time dismissed for six runs, just four balls after opening partner Bjorn Fortuin went for nine.

It wasn’t long after that when Rassie van der Dussen also departed for just two runs, with Warriors having their opponents on the ropes at 25/3.

Connor Esterhuizen showed grit for his 34 alongside Mitchell van Buuren, who later partnered with Delano Potgieter to try and dig their side out of trouble.

With the wicket of Potgieter for 30, the writing was on the wall as Van Buuren was left to stage a one-man resistance with their innings falling apart.

In the end their set target was just a bridge too far as the Warriors completed a comprehensive victory in front of a lively Cape Town crowd, lifting the T20 trophy for the second year in a row.