{"id":400978,"date":"2026-01-09T01:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T01:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/400978\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T01:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T01:58:09","slug":"promoted-to-no-3-then-retired-out-roston-chase-masters-sourav-gangulys-shocking-strategy-at-sa20-in-pretorias-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/400978\/","title":{"rendered":"Promoted to No. 3, then retired out: Roston Chase masters Sourav Ganguly\u2019s \u2018shocking\u2019 strategy at SA20 in Pretoria\u2019s win"},"content":{"rendered":"

It hasn\u2019t exactly been the greatest of seasons for Pretoria Capitals in SA20 2025\/26. Under new head coach Sourav Ganguly<\/a>, the franchise has managed just one win in the first five matches, collecting six points along the way, including a rain-abandoned home game against Durban Super Giants. However, in the return fixture at Kingsmead on Wednesday, Capitals clinched a thrilling contest, and at the centre of it stood two West Indies cricketers and a bold call from Ganguly that changed their fate and handed them their first win of the calendar year.<\/p>\n

\"RostonRoston Chase had the last laugh despite being promoted in the batting order, and then made to retire out (SA20)<\/p>\n

When Roston Chase<\/a> walked out after the dismissal of opener Connor Esterhuizen, eyebrows were raised. Normally a middle-order batter, Chase, who also surprisingly replaced Andre Russell in the playing XI, had batted above No. 4 just nine times in his T20 career. The 33-year-old, sporting the nickname \u2018Young Ross\u2019 on his jersey, ably assisted compatriot Shai Hope<\/a>, the other West Indies player at the heart of Capitals\u2019 turnaround, who went on to score a record century.<\/p>\n

By his own admission, Chase was taken aback when Ganguly hurried him to gear up and bat one down. \u201cI was quite actually shocked because I was just sitting down expecting probably one of the other guys to go, but then Ganguly just got out and said, \u2018Chase, you\u2019re on, you\u2019re on,\u2019 and that was it,\u201d he told Hindustan Times during a select media talk at Kingsmead.<\/p>\n

Trust Ganguly to know a thing or two about Durban and promoting batters up for masterstrokes. It was here at Kingsmead where the former India captain had smashed a magnificent 111 not out against Kenya in the 2003 World Cup semifinal. Two years later, as the astute leader, Ganguly promoted MS Dhoni to No. 3 against Pakistan in an ODI at Vizag. And the rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n

Capitals captain Keshav Maharaj<\/a> explained that the move was preferred given Chase\u2019s batting strength against spin. And the all-rounder justified the decision immediately, getting down on one knee to reverse-sweep Noor Ahmad for a boundary and smashing South Africa\u2019s T20 World Cup-bound Kwena Maphaka for twin sixes in a single over.<\/p>\n

Chase scored 24 off 15 balls, but Capitals had another plan: SA20 witnessed its first-ever retired out. Hope defended the unusual tactic, acknowledging that while it might feel odd for a batter in rhythm, the team fully understood the strategy behind it.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot entirely, because it\u2019s happened before. I\u2019ve been playing against him and he\u2019s been retired out. I\u2019m not sure how many times it\u2019s happened in cricket. But I must say, as a batter, when you\u2019re going at a decent strike rate and then you\u2019re just called off, you might feel a bit bad. But we know what a dangerous player Sherfane Rutherford can be. He didn\u2019t get off this time, but that\u2019s just how it goes. Roston could have hit the next few balls for sixes, that\u2019s just how it goes as well. But we understood the reason, so I don\u2019t think we\u2019re too worried about that decision,\u201d Hope explained in the post-match conference.<\/p>\n

He added that he would have been \u201cvery surprised\u201d had Ganguly asked him to retire out.<\/p>\n

Hope, who scored a career-best 118* from 69 balls, the highest by a batter in SA20 history, was also part of a tactical move made the night before the match. Capitals had experimented with two opening combinations in their first four completed games, but Hope was promoted up the order on Wednesday, and the decision paid off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was asked yesterday if I was comfortable doing it. I\u2019m one of those guys, if they ask me to open, bat at nine or ten, I\u2019ll try to be the best number 9-10. But yeah, if I get more deliveries, especially in the Powerplay, I can give myself a better chance to go as deep as possible and set up the game for the Beveruses, Rutherford, and guys at the back end who finish games. Today was just one of those days, I was told I\u2019m opening. Just got to do it,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

One last piece of magic from Chase<\/p>\n

For most of the evening, the home crowd remained silent, until an innings from Jos Buttler sparked late hope. Kingsmead seemed poised for another century, with the former T20 World Cup-winning captain piling on 97 not out using a variety of shots, flicks, pulls, drives, and reverse sweeps.<\/p>\n

However, with 18 runs needed in the final over, it was Chase who ended Buttler\u2019s chance. He bowled two perfect Yorkers while two of Buttler\u2019s partners fell to run-outs, sealing a 15-run Capitals victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just thinking about nailing my yorkers, that\u2019s one of my strengths. I wanted to start the over well and put Buttler under pressure, and I did well. After the first ball, I thought he might scoop, so I brought the field up from cover and sent back the final leg because if he tries to hit over cover, I have a better chance of bowling a dot ball or preventing a boundary,\u201d Chase later explained, describing the plan behind his final-over heroics.<\/p>\n

Pretoria will play their next game against Paarl Royals on January 10 at the Boland Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It hasn\u2019t exactly been the greatest of seasons for Pretoria Capitals in SA20 2025\/26. Under new head coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,213228,740,213230,213229,26819,73019,32650,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-400978","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-chase-ganguly","11":"tag-cricket","12":"tag-ganguly","13":"tag-retired-ou","14":"tag-roston-chase","15":"tag-sa20","16":"tag-sourav-ganguly","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}