Richard Gleeson defends five runs in SA20’s first Super Over to lead JSK over DSG.
Richard Gleeson defends five runs
Can a bowler really stay calm when 20,000 screaming fans are watching him defend a tiny margin with a ball made slippery by the night dew? For Richard Gleeson, the answer lies in a mix of clinical geometry and a well-trained subconscious.
On a high-octane New Year’s Day at the Wanderers, Gleeson didn’t just win a game for the Joburg Super Kings; he authored a manual on how to survive the most terrifying six balls in T20 cricket.
The Joburg Super Kings (JSK) and Durban’s Super Giants (DSG) had already hammered 410 runs between them when the match spiraled into the first-ever Super Over in SA20 history.
While the crowd was electric, Gleeson was operating in a vacuum of his own making, conceding a mere five runs to catapult JSK to the top of the table.
The Strategy of Chaos Management
Gleeson’s approach to the Super Over was a masterclass in psychological recovery. When Matthew de Villiers dropped a catch on the very first ball, a lesser bowler might have crumbled.
Gleeson simply joked to himself that the match was lost, then immediately reset his focus.
- The Second-Ball Pivot: Seeing Jos Buttler backing away, Gleeson didn’t follow him; he banged it in short and wide, forcing the world’s best white-ball batter into a physical stretch.
- The Yorker Illusion: He kept the batters guessing by alternating between searing yorkers and pace-off deliveries, ensuring they could never settle into a single “hitting zone.”
- The Length Trap: By utilizing the longer part of the boundary, he forced Evan Jones—who had just smashed 43 off 17—to hit toward the hardest possible targets.
The “Death Over” Elite
While Jasprit Bumrah is often cited as the gold standard for late-innings bowling, Gleeson’s numbers since 2022 place him in a rarefied atmosphere.
With an economy rate of 8.60 at the death and 47 wickets to his name, he is statistically one of the five most effective finishers in the global game.
His success isn’t an accident; it is the result of a “clear mind” technique he developed with sports psychologists to block out external noise.
The Mental Framework of Execution
Most spectators see a yorker as a physical feat. Gleeson sees it as a psychological one. He speaks openly about “falling back on skills” when pressure peaks.
The true secret to his five-run over wasn’t the speed of the ball, but the speed of his decision-making.
In his mind, he wasn’t bowling to Jos Buttler; he was executing a pre-rehearsed technique to “keep a clear mind” despite the dew and the stakes.
He called upon his 2022 experience with Lancashire to remind himself that he had been in this fire before—and survived.
The Risk of “Standing Still”
After the match, DSG’s Evan Jones mentioned his strategy was to “stand still and cash in.” While this works against medium-pacers who miss their mark, it is a dangerous gamble against a tactical bowler like Gleeson.
Standing still makes a batter a stationary target for a world-class yorker. To beat a bowler of Gleeson’s caliber, a batter must use the crease to disrupt the bowler’s length.
By remaining static, Jones played right into Gleeson’s geometry, leading to the inside edges and mistimed squeezes that defined the over.
While Durban’s Super Giants remain confident in their prospects for the rest of 2026, the Wanderers belonged to the man who wanted the ball when everyone else was afraid to hold it.
Richard Gleeson didn’t just deliver a win; he proved that in the shortest format, the strongest muscle is the one between the ears.