Super Giants hope to ride crest of wave to annex SA20 title against defending champions Sunrisers

For the sake of the integrity of the tournament, the SA20 needed the Sunrisers Eastern Cape and Durban Super Giants to play in the final, as will be the case at Newlands on Saturday.

Durban took the scenic route to reach the final, travelling from Johannesburg to Cape Town on Sunday, losing the first qualifier on Tuesday against the defending champions, then returning to the Highveld on Wednesday where they beat the Super Kings at the Wanderers the next night, before heading back to Cape Town on Friday.  

Unsurprisingly, they won’t be training before the final on Saturday afternoon.

“We will have a meeting and chat about how we will do it, but other than that there is nothing we can do,” said Wiaan Mulder, who has had an excellent tournament, scoring more than 250 runs at a strike rate of 150, taken two wickets and grabbed seven catches.

“In skill and mindset, that is up to the individual, how we are up for the fight and scrap as hard as we can to win every battle,” he said.

Mulder and the rest of the Super Giants were happy to get their hands dirty in what turned into a tetchy final eliminator at the Wanderers on Thursday where they beat the Joburg Super Kings by 69 runs. 

Verbal skirmishes involving numerous players on both teams highlighted the competitiveness of a contest Durban dominated, from the moment Heinrich Klaasen launched a furious assault against Imran Tahir, which was apparently fuelled by the way the Super Kings celebrated taking wickets.

“It’s a knockout game, everyone wants to compete and win. Everyone has their way of doing it and sometimes a guy has to pick a fight to get in the game and tonight [Thursday] that worked for Klaasie,” said Nandre Burger, who bowled well in taking 2/27 but was seen by some in the Durban camp as one of the main instigators of the subsequent verbal stoush.

“In the whole comp, their celebrations have been extravagant,” said Mulder. “[Klaasen’s] from the old school — you do things properly and stay humble.”

Mulder said the Super Kings’ celebrations didn’t bother him and the rest of the Durban team would not have been worried either, given how it ignited Klaasen, who scored 74 off 30 balls.

“He’s arguably the best in the world at the moment,” said Mulder. 

Klaasen’s work, not just in this year’s tournament but over the past two years in both white-ball formats, support’s Mulder’s claim. He is second-highest run-scorer in this year’s SA20, and following Thursday night’s thunderous performance is the competition's leading run-scorer with 810 runs over its two-year span. 

“Klaasie’s been a superstar,” Mulder added. 

However, DSG don’t want to rely solely on him on Saturday. Mulder said one of the Super Giants’ strengths this year was fostering an inclusive environment created by head coach Lance Klusener that has extracted performances out of different individuals over the course of the past month, not just relying on one player to carry them.

“[Matthew Breetzke] kept us in it in the first few weeks, Marcus Stoinis and Noor Ahmed were match winners, Junior [Dala] has stuck his hand up,” said Mulder

“It is similar for the Sunrisers. No-one has scored 100 other than Jordie [Hermann] for them. Aiden [Markram], Tom Abell, [Tristan] Stubbs have all put in performances.

“That’s what wins you these types of tournaments in a way — different people putting up their hands to win games from funny positions.”