By Patrick Compton.
The Pretoria Capitals underlined their status as the tournament front-runners by pulverising Durban’s Super Giants by eight wickets with 74 balls to spare in their Betway SA20 match at Kingsmead in Durban on Friday night.
More than 11 000 people turned up to see the Giants upset the favourites; what they saw instead was something of a slaughter with the Capitals’ bowlers scything their way through the Giants’ batting line-up to dismiss them for 80 in 18.1 overs – the lowest total of the tournament to date – before racing to their target in just 7.4 overs for the loss of two wickets.
This was largely due to a sensational half-century from England and Surrey allrounder Will Jacks who has been in brilliant form with the bat in the tournament. The 24-year-old right-hand bat played a series of magnificent shots – straight drives, drives off the back foot, pulls and hooks – to utterly dominate the Giants’ attack. In all he struck five fours and four sixes with sublime timing.
He perished nobly in the cause in the eighth over, caught in the deep off Keshav Maharaj, but not before he had helped to greatly improve his team’s net run rate and secure the bonus point with overs to spare.
The ease of the victory was not immediately apparent when the Capitals began their reply, after his partner, Phil Salt, was dismissed by the first ball of the innings delivered by Kyle Mayers.
The Barbadian thereby became the first player in T20 history to be dismissed off the first ball of an innings before taking a wicket with the first ball of his opponent’s innings – a mixed blessing. In this case the Barbadian opener got a leading edge off Wayne Parnell’s opening delivery in the Giants’ innings to be taken at third man before responding with Salt’s wicket, caught driving at mid-off.
Mayers’ second delivery was potentially equally as sensational as he trapped Theunis de Bruyn leg before with a ball that swung in sharply, but the subsequent player review showed the ball was just missing the leg stump.
That was the last moment of hope for the home team as Jacks took the visitors home in style.
Earlier, the Super Giants were cut down to size when they were dismissed for 80 in 18.1 overs.
Former Dolphin Senuran Muthusamy, playing his first match for the Capitals, excelled on his old ground, bowling with great control and claiming 3/12 in his four overs, while spin twin Adil Rashid took the key wicket of Heinrich Klaasen in exchange for a miserly 10 runs in his spell.
But it was the combined thrust of pacemen and spinners that nailed the Giants with Wayne Parnell claiming the wickets of Kyle Mayers with his first ball and Wiaan Mulder in his second over to rock the home team after they had won the toss and chosen to bat first in humid, cloudy conditions.
Parnell implicitly questioned the wisdom of that decision with swing and bounce in his first two overs while fellow pacemen Anrich Nortje and Eathan Bosch (another Dolphin) chipped in with a couple of wickets apiece. Nortje, who has been a consistent threat in this tournament, varied his pace well, exceeding 150kph with one delivery. He also claimed the key wicket of Quinton de Kock, uprooting the left-hander’s off-stump with a full, quick delivery.
There was little for the Giants to be happy about with only their top batsman, Klaasen, briefly impressing with the bat, striking a four and two sixes in his 31 in 24 balls.
After crawling to 23 for three in the first powerplay, the Giants and their supporters had a brief moment of joy when Jimmy Neesham’s one and only over for caned for 20 by Klaasen and Jason Holder. Thereafter it was all downhill for the home team with Shane Dadswell finishing off the innings with a brilliant catch diving forward at deep point to dismiss Maharaj.
DURBAN’S SUPER GIANTS: Kyle Mayers, Wiaan Mulder, Quinton de Kock (capt, wk), Dwaine Pretorius, Heinrich Klaasen, Jason Holder, Christiaan Jonker, Keshav Maharaj, Hardus Viljoen, Prenelan Subrayen, Reece Topley
PRETORIA CAPITALS: Phil Salt (wk), Will Jacks, Theunis de Bruyn, Rilee Rossouw, Shane Dadswell, James Neesham, Wayne Parnell (capt), Eathan Bosch, Adil Rashid, Anrich Nortje, Senuran Muthusamy.