By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Durban Super Giants (DSG) captain Aiden Markram crashed a career-best century – his second T20 hundred – and kept the hosts just alive for the SA20 playoffs with a bonus-point win at Kingsmead.
Markram showed that he is the man for the big occasion, flexing his biceps by smashing 108 off 58 balls (12×4, 5×6), with DSG’s season on the line. The Super Giants’ 189/7 proved too much for the Paarl Royals with the home team cruising to a bonus-point 58-run victory.
Defeat for Super Giants would have seen Lance Klusener’s team eliminated. Instead, they will now watch Joburg Super Kings’ match later this afternoon against Pretoria Capitals with bated breath for a JSK win will bring a close to DSG’s playoff chances.
But for now they will celebrate an audacious Markram innings. The skipper has taken time to settle into his new surroundings at Kingsmead after moving from Sunrisers Eastern Cape, but here he delivered a batting exhibition of the highest calibre.
The match was evenly poised when DSG were 53/3 after 7.2 overs with all three their big overseas signings Sunil Narine, Jos Buttler and Kane Williamson back in the hut.
It was therefore left to Markram and Heinrich Klaasen to resurrect the innings with a 81-run partnership off just 48 balls.
Klaasen (29 off 21 balls) does not often play second fiddle, but he could only look on in awe as Markram unleashed a power-hitting display of the highest order.
Standing tall in the crease, Markram bludgeoned the ball straight down the ground for a flurry of boundaries. He certainly made Royals rue dropping him in the deep on 79 off the bowling of Ottneil Baartman.
Markram’s takedown of Royals’ ace allrounder Sikandar Raza was particularly telling. Raza (0/57) has been one the standout performers of Betway SA20 Season 4, but on Saturday afternoon at Kingsmead he met his match.
Markram bludgeoned 28 runs, which included three sixes and two boundaries in Raza’s penultimate over of the innings. In the process, he brought up his second T20 century of his career to the great appreciation of the Kingsmead crowd.
Even Hardus Viljoen’s excellent career-best figures of 4/21 could not halt DSG’s momentum.
Meanwhile Pretoria Capitals wrapped up their regular Betway SA20 campaign with a 21‑run win over Johannesburg Super Kings, thanks to a staggering turnaround in a low‑scoring thriller at the Bidvest Wanderers on Saturday night.