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DSG win thriller after Capitals’ amazing collapse

football10 January 2025 20:25| © MWP
By:Patrick Compton
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Kane Williamson and Wiaan Mulder © Sportzpics

Amidst scenes of near-hysteria, Durban’s Super Giants won a bonkers SA20 clash against Pretoria Capitals by two runs at Kingsmead in Durban on Friday night.

The home team will wonder how they won, and the visitors will have nightmares about how they allowed almost certain victory to slip through their grasp.

Chasing 210 for victory, player of the match Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Will Jacks pounded the Super Giants’ attack for 154 in just 82 balls to open the door wide open for a comfortable victory. The eight sixes they hit was the most in the opening powerplay in the competition. It was also the highest ever partnership for the Capitals and the third biggest in the competition.

Even when Gurbaz holed out to Heinrich Klaasen in the deep off left-arm wrist-spinner Noor Ahmed to depart for a remarkable 89 off 43 balls (3x4s, 7x6s), the Capitals were faced with what seemed to be a straightforward task of scoring 42 at a run a ball with nine wickets in hand.

But then Noor Ahmed bowled Jacks through the gate with a ripper and the second opener departed for 61 (35 balls, 3x4s, 5x6s). It seemed hardly an issue at the time, but amazingly Mother Cricket had decided to twist the expected narrative. The Capitals duly succumbed to an almighty panic, losing five wickets for 38 runs as the barely believable began to become a reality.

Noor Ahmed claimed 2/34 off his four overs while Chris Woakes, who had been smashed in his opening overs, claimed 2/42. Even so, 17 were needed off the last two overs, a far from impossible feat. Then DSG’s captain, Kesh Maharaj, stepped in by conceding just three runs off the penultimate over and the wicket of Liam Livingstone who holed out to long-off to prompt deafening cheers from the blue-flagged capacity crowd.

Try as they might, debutant Steve Stolk and Kyle Verreynne were not able to claw back those runs in the final over delivered by Naveen ul-Haq. Verreynne hooked a four to narrow the target down to five off two. Verreynne got a single, leaving Stolk to score four for victory or three for a Super Over. He only managed a leg bye and the ground exploded in joy and, surely, a sense of disbelief that the game had been lost and won in such a manner.

Earlier, Kane Williamson and Wiaan Mulder had added 91 in 41 balls for the fifth wicket to enable the Super Giants to total 209 for four in their 20 overs.

Williamson finished unbeaten on 60 in 40 balls (3x4s, 2x6s) while Mulder raced to 45 off just 19 balls (4x4s, 3x6s) to end the home team’s innings on a high.

The Capitals will regret giving Williamson a life when he had reached 23 in the 15th over, the Kiwi slicing a drive off fellow countryman Jimmy Neesham to Rahmanullah Gurbaz at deep backward point. The Afghani dropped the straightforward chance. It would seem, later on in the match, that Gurbaz had repaid his team twofold for his act of profligacy, but – somehow – it was not to be.

As it turned out, Williamson made the Capitals pay for their generosity, but Mulder was even more punishing, striking legspinner Livingstone for two beautifully struck cover drives for six in his innings.

The pair’s partnership was greatly needed by the home team after Senuran Muthusamy brought the momentum of the innings to a shuddering halt with some superb left-arm spin, claiming 3/21 in his four overs after the Super Giants had got off to a good start with Bryce Parsons (47 in 27 balls) and Matthew Breetzke (33 in 20 balls) adding 67 off 40 balls for the first wicket.

Muthusamy had Breetzke well taken low down at extra-cover by Capitals’ skipper Rilee Rossouw with his second ball, then yorked Parsons in his second over. And when he had Quinton de Kock caught at “45” in his final over he had brought his team back into the match.

Heinrich Klaasen walked to the wicket with the blue flag-waving crowd giving him a rousing reception, but his innings only lasted two balls. The first, from Livingston, pitched on leg stump and ripped away while the second drew a flamboyant drive from Klaasen that he edged to wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne.

Mulder and Williamson revived the innings, however, with some superb striking though for most of the Capitals’ innings, it barely seemed enough.

DURBAN’S SUPER GIANTS: Matthew Breetzke, Bryce Parsons, Kane Williamson, Quinton de Kock (wk), Heinrich Klaasen, Wiaan Mulder, Dwaine Pretorius, Chris Woakes, Keshav Maharaj (capt), Naveen ul-Haq, Noor Ahmed

PRETORIA CAPITALS: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Will Jacks, Steve Stolk, Rilee Rossouw (capt), Kyle Verreynne (wk), Liam Livingstone, James Neesham, Senuran Muthusamy, Kyle Simmonds, Eathan Bosch, Darren Dupavillon.

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