Super Kings claim thrilling last-ball win against Capitals in SA20

Amid the shrill din created by thousands of whistles in-between various fireworks for wickets or boundaries and sets of thumping hard tunes, the Joburg Super Kings and Pretoria Capitals produced the first last-ball thriller in the Betway SA20 at the Wanderers on Tuesday.

In-between cries from an over-enthusiastic stadium announcer, the Super Kings’ West Indies imports Alzarri Joseph and Romario Shepherd maintained their composure to give their team a much needed eight-run victory.

Shepherd defended 10 runs in the final over and the wicket of Adil Rashid, who’d hit the last ball of the penultimate over for six, was greeted with a thunderous roar as skipper Faf du Plessis took a sliding catch on the long-off boundary. 

It was a thrilling match that swung one way then another from the time the Super Kings had been inserted by Wayne Parnell. It wasn’t as slick a surface as this venue is known for, but the Capitals skipper was happy to back his potent bowling unit to keep an underperforming Kings batting order under pressure.

There was due care shown by the new opening combination of Du Plessis and Reeza Hendricks. They had grown frustrated midway through the power play before Du Plessis marched down the track and launched Parnell over long-off for the first boundary.

A quartet of boundaries followed in the next eight balls to give the Super Kings their best start with the bat in the competition so far, though it was a modest 43/0 at the end of the power play. 

Hendricks found coming to terms with the two-paced nature of the pitch only slightly less infuriating than the thousands of spectators whose entry into the Bullring was delayed by the city’s traffic authorities.

The elegant stroke-maker has struggled to make an impression on the tournament and in Tuesday’s innings of 45 off 50 balls he only occasionally displayed the shot-making for which he is known.

It was left to Leus du Plooy to provide the Super Kings with some much-needed impetus. A few years ago the 28-year-old had given up playing in South Africa and taken a Kolpak contract that would lead to him captaining English county Derbyshire. With Brexit those contracts were declared null and void and Du Plooy has been back in SA plying his trade.

Tuesday’s 75 off 40 balls served as a reminder of his glowing talent, with the striking against Parnell in the 19th over, which included a pair of fours and sixes, particularly memorable.

As was the one-handed catch taken Will Jacks took sprinting around the midwicket boundary, which briefly halted the whistling as an audible gasp made its way around the stands.

The Capitals never got their teeth into the chase, with both their openers Phil Salt and Jacks, who’d starred for them in their first two matches, dismissed by the seventh over.

That exposed the middle order and while Shane Dadswell, Jimmy Neesham and Theunis de Bruyn kept the scoreboard ticking over, none could provide the stability needed to ensure the target could be chased in a composed fashion.

Aaron Phangiso wound back the clock, picking up 4/31, before Joseph and Shepherd locked the game down at the end.