Elgar the star as Spartans shine
ON THE MOVE: TSHWANE TEAM CLIMB OFF THE BOTTOM
Ken Borland
Dean Elgar is one of the more underestimated Twenty20 players in the country and he showed his ability to master the shortest format again yesterday as he steered the Tshwane Spartans to a four-wicket win, with three balls remaining, against the Jozi Stars in their Mzansi Super League Gauteng derby at Centurion.
A pitch with good pace and bounce is ideal for strokeplay and Tshwane were chasing a testing target of 187 for victory. They were in early trouble as Kagiso Rabada cleaned up Gihahn Cloete for five, and off-spinner Simon Harmer removed Corbin Bosch (9) and Theunis de Bruyn (0) with successive deliveries.
AB de Villiers is clearly still a magnificent striker of the ball and his 39 off 21 deliveries helped Tshwane rally as he and Elgar added 68 off 38 deliveries for the fourth wicket.
But when De Villiers fell to a Dwaine Pretorius slower delivery, the Spartans still needed 68 off 44 balls to win and looked in danger of losing their way, as they have so often this season.
But Elgar stepped up superbly and led his team to the highest successful chase in the tournament so far with a brilliant 79 not out off 52 balls, a win which also saw them move off the bottom of the standings.
His four sixes showed his ability to clear the boundary with proper shots, but the rest of the time he just skilfully manipulated the ball around.
Tony de Zorzi (18 off 12) and Sean Williams (13* off eight) played important roles at the death.
Having been sent in to bat, the Jozi Stars made a rapid start as openers Ryan Rickelton (14) and Reeza Hendricks (55 off 48) added 54 off 40 balls.
But the visiting batsmen perhaps dedicated a bit too much time to nudging the spinners around in the middle overs, with slow left-armer Williams stemming supporting the tide with an outstanding spell of four overs for just 14 runs.
Nevertheless, the Stars had the big finish they wanted as Pite van Biljon thrashed 42 off just 13 balls as he and Dane Vilas (25* off 14) added 71 off just 30 balls to take them to 186 for five.
But Elgar’s masterclass in watchful, fluent and steady batting was able to better that.