Faf delivers as Super Kings storm into SA20 playoffs

With the door to the playoffs left ajar after a thrilling outcome which went in their favour in Cape Town, the Joburg Super Kings duly stormed into the final week of the SA20 with a thunderous victory against the table-topping Durban Super Giants at the Wanderers on Saturday night. 

Donovan Ferreira swung the penultimate ball of the match over long-on for six and duly turned to the dugout to start the celebrations, with 40-year-old Wayne Madsen leaping onto his back. It was bedlam in this venerable stadium as the home team closed in on a substantial target of 204.

Moeen Ali had smacked 26 off 13 balls to keep the chase alive, but he departed with nine runs still needed off four balls. Ferreira smoked the first ball he faced for six before getting the celebrations started with that final blow. 

Victory saw the Super Kings finish fourth and they will face the Paarl Royals in the second eliminator match back at this ground on Wednesday. The Super Giants head to Cape Town to play the Sunrisers Eastern Cape on Tuesday, with the victors there going straight into next Saturday’s final. The losers, get a second bite of the cherry when they face the winners of Wednesday’s clash, the following day, also at the Bullring in the final eliminator.

A 102-run first-wicket partnership between JSK captain Faf du Plessis and Leus du Plooy set the home team on their way, but with such a big target to chase, they had to maintain momentum through. 

Durban, despite their place atop the log being assured, fought gallantly in defence with their 22-year-old Afghanistan left-arm wrist spinner Noor Ahmad magnificent. He conceded just 16 runs in four overs while picking up the wickets of the JSK openers. His final over, the 17th of the innings looked like being the turning point. He conceded just a single while bowling Du Plooy with a beautiful googly. 

Ultimately, however, Moeen, Madsen with an unbeaten 44 and Ferreira did enough to get their team over the line, in front of 20,000 rowdy fans.

The Super Kings had earlier set themselves up perfectly by taking three wickets in the power play. However Wiaan Mulder and JJ Smuts showed excellent composure to stem that initial tide and then quickly turn the momentum back in Durban’s favour. 

The pair shared a partnership of 114 runs for the fourth wicket, with singles and twos providing them with a foundation, and then having become accustomed to conditions, they asserted their dominance by locating the boundary with regularity. 

Both made half-centuries; Smuts 55 off 34 balls, before somewhat comically flicking the ball onto his own stumps, while Mulder was bowled off the inside edge, having made 59 off 40 balls. 

Heinrich Klaasen, who came into the match with a strike well in advance of 200, delivered the coup de grace, with a virtuoso display crushing 40 off just 16 balls.

JSK’s opportunity to qualify for the playoffs came as a result of a stunning win for their provincial neighbours, the Pretoria Capitals over MI Cape Town at Newlands earlier in the afternoon.

Senuran Muthusamy’s electrifying switch hitting earned the Capitals a win that got them into fourth spot 20 minutes before the Super Kings kicked off at the Wanderers. Muthusamy struck three sixes, two of them reverse paddles over third man against Sam Curran to change the momentum of the Capitals run chase. 

He finished not out on 38 off 18 balls, earning the Pretoria side a sensational win in a match that for large portions Cape Town looked to be in control of. 

They had been set a target of 164 thanks to an innings of 64 from Rassie van der Dussen and then a late burst from their captain Kieron Pollard who made 33 off 16 balls. 

However Cape Town’s bowlers panicked in the last five overs, and for the second season in a row will be left wondering how a line-up with so many stellar names, which include the batter of the tournament in Ryan Rickelton, will be following the final week of the competition from home.