Season two of SA20 has seen Durban’s Super Giants make a name for themselves as the most dangerous team in the tournament, a complete opposite to what they were last season when they did not make it to the playoff stage of the competition.
Leading what is a season of redemption for the Durban-based team is opening batter Matthew Breetzke who has put runs on the board for the Super Giants despite Quinton de Kock’s struggles this season.
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Breetzke hurried to a 30-ball half-century, his first in the SA20 in his eighth fixture. The youngster persisted with a shimmy down the wicket to the Paarl Royals’ spinners — Bjorn Fortuin, Wihan Lubbe and Tabraiz Shamsi — and successfully launched them down the ground for boundaries.
Despite Breetzke's half-century, the Royals had already done a bit of damage having dismissed Tony de Zorzi and De Kock early and cheaply.
De Zorzi chased a wide delivery from Lungi Ngidi and got a faint outside edge, and with the experienced Jos Buttler gloveman, De Zorzi made his was back to the dugout in the second over of the match.
De Kock got a leading edge and was safely caught by Bjorn Fortuin off his own bowling to hand the Royals their second scalp of the day.
Jon-Jon Smuts’ stay at the crease was brief but yet impactful as the right-handed batter struck two boundaries and a six off just eight balls.
With Breetzke out courtesy of a Shamsi googly, it was all up to Heinrich Klaasen and Marcus Stoinis to make the most of the remaining 3.3 overs as the score sat at 150 when Breetzke was stumped out by Buttler.
Klaasen (50 off 17, 2x4, 6x6), just like he had been doing from the start of the tournament, put the opposition bowlers to the sword and smashed a 16-ball fifty, the fastest in the SA20.
Together with Stoinis (38off 36, 2x4, 2x6), the pair smashed 58 runs in the last 21 deliveries to take the Super Giants to a daunting 208-7.
In reply, the Royals had the worst of starts to the chase, losing Jos Buttler, Jason Roy and Wihan Lubbe inside the first powerplay.
With the in-form trio back at the dugout, the Royals lost batters that had been match-winners for them all tournament but there was hope as captain David Miller joined the in-form Mitchell van Buuren in the middle.
However, the visitors just never recovered from their unfortunate start as Noor Ahmad cleaned them up with his left-arm wrist spin.
The Royals just could not read the spinner, leading to Ahmad’s very first five-for of the SA20 in front of his home fans at Kingsmead Stadium.
Only Van Buuren showed fight yesterday with an unbeaten 36 off 27 deliveries, a performance that saw the right-handed batter smash five boundaries.
However, the Super Giants had already done enough damage and successfully wrapped up a bonus point 125-run victory.
Scorecard
Durban’s Super Giants: 208-7 (Breetzke 78, Klaasen 50, Shamsi 2-20)
Paarl Royals: 83 all out (Van Buuren 36*, Roy 14, Ahmad 5-11)
Durban’s Super Giants won by 125 runs
IOL Sport