Heinrich Klaasen blasted Durban’s Super Giants into their first-ever Betway SA20 final as the Super Giants comfortably beat Joburg Super Kings by 69 runs in Qualifier 2 at the Wanderers.<\/p>\n
Klaasen smashed 74 off just 30 balls (3×4, 7×6) to power DSG to 211\/6. The Proteas superstar was well supported by Wiaan Mulder, who struck an equally rapid unbeaten 50 off just 23 balls (3×3, 3×6).<\/p>\n
DSG debutant, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, also made a solid contribution in his first outing in the competition with 35 off 23 balls.<\/p>\n
The Super Kings had done well to reduce DSG to 94\/4 after 12.1 overs with left-arm seamer Nandre Burger (2\/27) delivering a fiery spell upfront.<\/p>\n
But that’s when Klaasen and Mulder began their work as they added a mammoth 101 runs in just 38 balls for the fifth wicket to take the game away from the Super Kings.<\/p>\n
The JSK run chase was always going to be dependent on their captain Faf du Plessis, but once he departed early after being caught by Quinton de Kock, who took a good catch running back to boundary, the home team’s mountain became so much steeper.<\/p>\n
It was valiant effort after they had won their Eliminator just 24 hours earlier to give themselves the opportunity of qualifying for the final.<\/p>\n
Moeen Ali (30), Reeza Hendricks (27) and Donovan Ferreira (24) all struck cameos for the Super Kings, but nobody could match Klaasen\u2019s sheer brute force of earlier in the day.<\/p>\n
Klaasen is now second on the Betway SA20 leading run-scorers list with 447 runs and needs 84 runs in Saturday’s final to overtake MI Cape Town\u2019s Ryan Rickelton at the top of the leaderboard.<\/p>\n
The DSG bowlers backed up their batters\u2019 pyrotechnics with a complete performance in the field and with the ball.<\/p>\n
Junior Dala led the way again with 4\/38, with Naveen (2\/27) and Dwaine Pretorius (2\/17) providing good support.<\/p>\n
The catching was also out of the top drawer, highlighted by Naveen-ul-Haq\u2019s two-handed spectacular grab at mid-off.<\/p>\n
The Super Giants travelled up to Johannesburg for Qualifier 2 after losing to the Sunrisers Eastern Cape at Newlands on Tuesday evening in Qualifier 1.<\/p>\n
They will now return to Cape Town for the final in a rematch with the Sunrisers at Newlands on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Copyright Shaun Roy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"