Mpumalanga, also known as theMpumalanga Rhinos, are aSouth Africanfirst-class cricket team representing the province ofMpumalanga. They have their headquarters inWitbank and play their home games at Uplands College inWhite River.

WhenCricket South Africa decided to expand theProvincial Three-Day Challenge in 2006, Mpumalanga were one of five provincial teams (along withKei,KwaZulu-Natal Inland,Limpopo andSouth Western Districts) elevated to first-class status.

Mpumalanga played eight first-class matches in the 2006–07 season. They lost six of them and drew the other two. Four of the defeats were by an innings. They also lost all eight of their matches in the Provincial One-Day Challenge.

Their captain in all matches in 2006–07 wasRoelof Hugo,^[1] who was also the wicket-keeper. He scored 451 runs in the first-class matches during the season at an average of 28.18, took 21 catches behind the stumps and effected one stumping. He later played for South Western Districts. The most successful batsman in the first-class matches for the team that season wasPaul van den Berg,^[2] who scored 524 runs at 43.66 with one century and also took 16 wickets at 33.43. He later played forEasterns.Adolf van den Berg^[3] was the most successful bowler, with 20 wickets at 34.30 as well as 414 runs at 31.84 with one century. In the innings loss toNortherns, the 18-year-oldAdriano dos Santos,^[4] on his first-class debut, made 133 (out of a team total of 211) and 64.^[5] He later played a few matches forEastern Province.^{[citation needed]}

In a competition that was itself of borderline first-class status, Cricket South Africa considered Mpumalanga's performance (and those of Kei and Limpopo) too weak to justify their place, and after one season, all three teams were omitted.^[6] They then played in various sub-first-class competitions. In August 2018, they were included in the2018 Africa T20 Cup tournament.^[7][8]

Mpumalanga played no further first-class cricket until the 2022–23 season, when both they (now known as the Mpumalanga Rhinos) and Limpopo (the Limpopo Impalas) were readmitted to the South African first-class competition.^[9] In 2022–23 Mpumalanga won none of their six matches and finished last in Division 2 of theCSA 4-Day Domestic Series.^[10] In 2023–24 they won one of their six matches and again finished last.^[11] In 2024–25 they won two and lost one of their six matches, and finished third of the seven teams in Division 2.^[12]

At the end of the 2024–25 season, Mpumalanga's highest individual first-class score is 200not out byJurie Snyman againstEasterns in 2023–24, when Snyman captained the team to its first first-class victory.^[13] The best bowling figures are 7 for 51 by Kieran Kenny against Limpopo in 2022–23.^[14]

• South African Cricket Annual – various editions
• Wisden Cricketers' Almanack – various editions

• Lists of matches played by Mpumalanga at CricketArchive
• Mpumalanga Rhinos website

• First-class cricket teams in South Africa
• Cricket in Mpumalanga

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from September 2023
• Use South African English from September 2023
• All Wikipedia articles written in South African English
• Official website not in Wikidata
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• Articles with unsourced statements from October 2023