Ken Borland

The North-West Dragons will ponder how they managed to throw victory away, while Western Province will be proud of a marvellous fightback in the field as well as a couple of magnificent catches as they won their CSA T20 Challenge Eliminator by 41 runs at the Wanderers on Wednesday night.

Western Province were sent in to bat and only made it to a decent total of 166 for five thanks to a mighty finish from George Linde, who smashed 49 off just 23 balls, with five sixes – three of them in the penultimate over off Kerwin Mungroo. Linde then completed a memorable match for himself by taking three for 15 with the ball, as well as hanging on to a spectacular catch.

Kyle Simmonds took a career-best three for 14 in his four overs, as the duo of left-arm spinners sent North-West crashing from 77 for two to 125 all out.

The Dragons had taken the match by the scruff of the neck as Meeka-eel Prince (25 off 11) and captain Wihan Lubbe (46 off 20) put on a rollicking partnership of 70 off just 30 balls for the second wicket. This came after Beuran Hendricks (2-0-9-2) had removed both North-West openers for two apiece.

Taheer Isaacs top-edged a hook to fine leg, but Janneman Malan hit a fine short-arm jab that was somehow caught by Linde, diving full-length at a wide mid-on for a spectacular one-handed grab.

Prince lost control of a pull shot off Wesley Bedja and was caught at fine leg, but the Dragons only needed 90 more runs at a rate of 7.3 to the over to win.

With skipper Lubbe still at the crease and enjoying tremendous momentum, Western Province needed more wickets quickly.

And North-West proceeded to gift them those wickets with mindless cricket. First Lubbe ran himself out going for a second run to long-on, beaten by a superb clean pick-up and bullet throw from Bedja, and then Lesiba Ngoepe (17) pulled a long-hop from Simmonds to cow-corner.

Simmonds took all three of his wickets in the 11^th over as Marco Jansen (9), instead of just trying to push the ball straight down the ground, then tried to drive over midwicket and was bowled, and Bamanya Xenxe (0) was bowled by a peach of an arm-ball.

Linde then took the last three wickets as North-West lost eight wickets for 48 runs in eight overs, Mpongwana taking an incredible one-handed catch, low to his left at slip, to dismiss Kerwin Mungroo for a duck.

The well-balanced Dragons attack had earlier bowled in good areas and justified Lubbe’s decision to bowl first as they restricted Western Province to 101 for five in the first 15 overs. The frustration of the batsmen was most evident in the in-form Eddie Moore’s innings of 15 off 23 balls, which ended in soft fashion when he holed out to long-on against tidy leg-spinner Caleb Seleka (4-0-25-1).

The Western Province top-order is still a little wet behind the ears, and they found themselves bogged down as they could only score 46 for two in the powerplay, compared to the Dragons later on racing to 63 for two.

Mihlali Mpongwana looked good in scoring 24 off 19 deliveries before holing out at deep square-leg off Gideon Peters, who impressed the smattering of spectators at the ground with some genuinely fiery fast bowling which netted him excellent figures of three for 24 in his four overs.

But Linde then hit the ball brilliantly down the ground and over the one short boundary as he blasted a handful of sixes, adding 65 unbeaten runs off just 35 balls with Abdullah Bayoumy (14* off 12).

As good an innings as it was, it did not seem to be enough as North-West were cruising. But then came their spectacular implosion.

Western Province will now take on the Northerns Titans in Qualifier 2 at SuperSport Park on Friday evening, the winners returning to the Wanderers on Sunday afternoon to take on the Central Gauteng Lions in the final.

The Joburg Super Kings just need to win one more game to book their place in the SA20 final after they threw everything at the deflated Paarl Royals and hammered them by nine wickets with 40 balls to spare in their Eliminator at the Wanderers on Wednesday evening.

Having just scraped into the playoffs with victory in their last round-robin game, the Super Kings will now face the Durban Super Giants in Qualifier 2 at the Wanderers on Thursday, the winner going on to play defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape in the final at Newlands on Saturday.

Before their almost complete victory over the Royals, Joburg’s best showing in the tournament had been in the previous game when they registered a rousing win in the final over against the selfsame Super Giants last weekend.

Wednesday was a night when just about everything went according to plan for the Super Kings, starting with winning the toss and sending Paarl in to bat first, which has generally been tougher this season at the Wanderers.

And then Sam Cook, making his SA20 debut because strike bowler Lizaad Williams picked up an injury, struck twice in his second over, removing Paarl’s two leading run-scorers going into the game, Jos Buttler (10) and Mitchell van Buuren (0).

Van Buuren’s dismissal was courtesy of a sensational catch by Imran Tahir, who showed that age is just a number by racing back from short fine-leg and diving to take a catch over his shoulder. At 44 years old, Tahir has been “poor in the field” this season, JSK coach Stephen Fleming admitted, but he took a second fantastic catch when he intercepted Dane Vilas’s sweep that was looking like being a low, flat six, at fine leg off Nandre Burger.

Burger also dismissed Jason Roy (24) and Wihan Lubbe (4), finally getting the wickets his excellent bowling this season has deserved.

While fast bowlers Cook, whose four for 24 in 3.5 overs were the best ever figures by an SA20 debutant, and Burger (4-0-26-3) shared most of the wickets, spinners Moeen Ali (4-0-26-1) and Tahir (4-0-33-2) were able to tie the batsmen down and strike, while seamer Dayyaan Galiem bowled two tidy overs for 11 runs.

From 43 for four, Vilas (21) and David Miller were able to double the total with their stand of 44 off 34 deliveries, and the Royals were relying on captain Miller for a big finish to give them a competitive score. But Miller was caught behind off a Tahir googly at the end of the 17^th over with the total on 126.

Eventually Paarl finished on 138, bowled out in 19 overs, setting them on track for their fifth successive defeat.

“We weren’t 100% with the ball, but we were on the right areas for long enough and we had a bit of luck,” a smiling Fleming said after the triumph. “It’s a very fine line, on certain days you can do everything right but it just doesn’t work.

“The word momentum is over-used, sometimes it’s just slightly different training or words beforehand that can turn things around, and we were nicely in the moment this evening.

“Imran has been poor in the field for us this season, and then he takes a couple of catches like that! That’s when you know it’s your day,” Fleming said.

Faced with a potentially tricky target if they lost early wickets, the Super Kings were on fire from the start of their chase.

In the briefing before their innings, the importance of a good start would have been emphasised, and once Leus du Plooy had lashed 68 off 43 balls, JSK were always going to make short work of the chase.

Du Plooy’s innings, laced with seven fours and two sixes, was a fine example of dominant strokeplay and clever shot options.

With Faf du Plessis giving perfect, sensible support at the other end, they raised their century partnership for the first wicket in the 10^th over, Du Plooy falling soon after, stumped off Tabraiz Shamsi.

But by then Du Plessis was giving the Royals bowlers a battering as well, and he finished with 55 not out off 34 deliveries.

When your best performance of the season comes at the start of the knockout rounds, your coach is going to be well-pleased, and Fleming was certainly chuffed.

“That was right up there as one of our most complete performances, and also with the status of the game. It’s a great time to have the sort of performance we aim for.

“The start of the chase was so good, it just killed the game, we polished off that target. It was a really good win,” Fleming said.

A change in their batting order has Joburg Super Kings captain Faf du Plessis hopeful that they are over their batting woes as they head into their do-or-die eliminator against the Paarl Royals at the Wanderers on Wednesday.

JSK just snuck into the playoffs courtesy of their rousing victory over then log-leaders Durban Super Giants at the Wanderers last weekend, successfully chasing down a daunting target of 204. Du Plessis himself was man of the match with his 57 off 29 balls, marking a return to form for the former Proteas captain who had averaged just 20.66 in the tournament up till then.

Leus du Plooy opened the batting with Du Plessis and also scored 57, with Wayne Madsen coming in at number three and scoring 44 not out off 29 balls as he partnered big-hitters Moeen Ali and Donovan Ferreira as they took the Super Kings to victory with a ball to spare.

“After we were bowled out for 78 by the Sunrisers here, I felt embarrassed for the sell-out crowd, you’re hurting as a player and as a team. You’re half-expecting them not to turn up for the next game because they think you’re down-and-out, but we are extremely grateful we have such great supporters and we’re really glad we turned things around,” Du Plessis said at the Wanderers on Tuesday.

“I’m really proud of the performance against DSG, we were under a lot of pressure and managed to chase more than 200 against the best team in the tournament so far. So we will take a lot of confidence from that because DSG are a remarkable side with such balance.

“Obviously you need your big players to perform in a competition like this to put you in contention and there’s no doubt me not scoring many runs before that had a huge impact on the confidence of the team.

“You hope a couple of batsmen will have a purple patch and carry the batting line-up, but we were a bit light in that respect. But once we found our rhythm, we had better starts and that flowed through the team. We made a change with Leus moving up front and tactically that was a good change.

“Reeza Hendricks is an unbelievable player, but with the ball gripping in the first six overs like it has here, having two right-handers open the batting made it an uphill battle. To have two different batsmen at the crease [right-hand & left-hand] is important, especially if there’s something in the conditions.

“Wayne Madsen has also been fantastic in the last couple of games. Last season the pitch spun quite a bit here and so we went for Wayne because he’s very experienced and plays spin really well, his game centres around sweeping and reverse-sweeping. He’s been brilliant for us and he’s also one of the reasons our batting is in a better place,” Du Plessis said.

For Paarl Royals captain David Miller, the major change they need is in how they finish innings with the ball, having lost their last four games on the trot.

“It’s not ideal losing the last four, but it would look different if we lost five matches scattered through the tournament and there’s no stress or panic in any way. I was really happy with the way we went about our game at St George’s Park, even though we lost.

“In previous games, the opposition has taken the match away from us in the last four/five overs. You think you’ve restricted them to a good score to chase, but then it becomes a massive total and, as a batsman, chasing 10 or 11 an over from the get-go, you’re under pressure.

“So we’ve been in the game until the 15^th or 16^th over, playing really good cricket, but we need to stick to our processes, that’s what we’ll look to correct. T20 cricket can switch quickly, we have worked really hard and we still finished third on the log. So we are really positive and we just need to find our mojo again,” Miller said.

Playing at home in the eliminator and also potentially Qualifier 2 should also pump up the tyres of the Joburg Super Kings, but Du Plessis admitted they have struggled to adapt to the vagaries of the Wanderers pitch.

“Being at home will make a difference, it can give you an extra 10%, although we have been a bit frustrated here because we have not been able to produce our best. We’ve been a bit unsure of what the pitch will do. Winning your matches at home means you will generally be near the top at the back end of the tournament.

“But the last game here had a really good cricket wicket and it did not make that much difference whether you batted or bowled first. In the first few matches here, the pitch was very dry in the first innings and that played a bit into the oppositions’ strengths.

“But against DSG it was about playing your best cricket and then the best team would end up on top. It was all about how well you do your skills,” Du Plessis said.

As Miller pointed out though, Paarl Royals have won both their matches on the Highveld this season. Lungi Ngidi took four wickets as they won a thriller against the Pretoria Capitals in Centurion, and then they took advantage of a messy display in the field by the Super Kings to chase down 169 at the Wanderers and beat them by five wickets with an over to spare.

But back-to-back defeats to both the Durban Super Giants and Sunrisers Eastern Cape has punctured the confidence of the Royals; just how deflated they are will be seen on Wednesday evening.