Super Giants stay in the hunt
NERVY: DE KOCK LEADS HIS TEAM TO IMPORTANT WIN
Durban’s Super Giants have been like a sluggish brontosaurus so far in the SA20, but when the league resumed last evening in Durban, they showed glimpses of being transformed into ruthless T-Rexs as they beat MI Cape Town by five wickets with a ball to spare.
A tidy bowling display had limited MI Cape Town to 165/5, and the Super Giants then chased that down thanks to a powerful top-order display.
A large part of that success was thanks to captain Quinton de Kock, who was at his freeflowing best as he struck 63 off 41 balls, with seven fours and three powerful sixes when he took on the short ball to great effect.
Young Matthew Breetzke planted himself at the other end and put on 65 off 44 balls for the second wicket with De Kock, and then saw the chase through to its conclusion.
Keemo Paul was promoted up the order and made sure he was not eating up too many balls as he provided some important impetus with his 31 off 18 balls.
But then arguably the most fearsome dinosaur of them all on South African turf, Kagiso Rabada, removed both Paul and the in-form Heinrich Klaasen, for a second-ball duck in the 17th over, to create a nervy finish.
Rabada also dismissed Wiaan Mulder (7) to finish with outstanding figures of 3/22 in his four overs, but Breetzke kept his cool. With three runs needed off the last two deliveries, he hooked Duan Jansen for six to finish with 48 not out off 39 balls, a great innings under pressure.
The Super Giants are languishing at the bottom of the log and desperately needed a victory to keep their hopes of making the play-offs alive when they won the toss and sent MI Cape Town in to bat.
Pacemen Dwaine Pretorius and Reece Topley (4-0-28-0) used the conditions well and bowled tight lines as they reduced MI Cape Town to a miserable 50/3 in the eighth over.
But the visitors burst into life when Rassie van der Dussen (43 off 32) and Tim David, who bludgeoned three huge sixes in his 33 off 26 balls, added 55 in just sixand-a-half overs.
They were both dismissed in successive overs though as MI Cape Town slipped to 115/5 in the 16th over. They needed Delano Potgieter’s lively innings of 32 not out off 17 balls to lift them to a competitive score.
The left-hander hit three sixes in Pretorius’s last over to ruin his figures – the Proteas all-rounder finishing with 2/38 in his four overs. Spinners Keshav Maharaj (3-0-20-1) and Simon Harmer (30-21-0) were also effective for the Super Giants.