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We fought hard but our 159/7 against defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape proved marginally short as we lost the match at Kingsmead by five wickets on Saturday.
Electing to bat first, we put on a competitive total on board on a challenging surface. Wiaan Mulder top-scored for us with a 29-ball 52. While defending, we had the SEC on the ropes at 97/5 in the 15th over but an unbeaten 66 from Tristan Stubbs eventually took the visitors over the line in the last over.
We are now second on the SA20 2024 standings with 13 points from five matches. We started with three wins in a row but have suffered our second defeat on the bounce. We still have five league matches to play and plenty of time to take back that top spot.
Breetzke and Klaasen strike valuable knocks
QDK's departure in the second over rocked us early on a pitch that offered unexpected bounce. Matthew Breetzke was looking good and helped us reach 46/1 at the end of the powerplay.
Although Breetzke fell after making a well-made 35, Heinrich Klaasen stepped up to bat next and did not let the wicket impact the scoring rate.
Klaasen’s knock of 31 came in 17 balls and included one boundary and three maximums. Notably, one of his sixes soared to a remarkable distance of 105 metres over long-on, hitting the top of the roof. He miscued a shot in the 13th over and was dismissed off the bowling of Simon Harmer and we were reduced to 90/5.
Mulder makes late impact
We were 125/5 in 18 overs. It appeared we might finish with a below-par total but Wiaan Mulder turned the tide in our favour with four consecutive maximums off Marco Jansen. Mulder also brought up his fifty with his fourth six and propelled the team total past 150. Mulder could have added more but was run out on the first ball of the 20th over after backing up too far.
Bowlers lead fightback
The required rate for the visitors was eight runs at the start of the second innings. Marcus Stoinis and Reece Topley delivered a pair of economical overs, maintaining SEC's run rate below six during the initial four overs. Additionally, Topley dismissed Dawid Malan in the third over to firmly put SEC on the backfoot.
SEC skipper Aiden Markram and Jordan Hermann upped the scoring rate but our captain Keshav Maharaj trapped Jordan Hermann in front of the stumps to reduce the opposition to 41/3 in the eighth over.
Markram and Tristan Stubbs looked threatening with a 56-run partnership for the fourth wicket. However, Stoinis dismissed Markram and Patrick Kruger to restore the balance of the game.
SEC were 97/5 in 14.3 overs, needing 63 runs from 33 balls. Tristan Stubbs and Marco Jansen then stitched an unbeaten partnership for SEC to seal the contest with four balls to spare.
What next for the Super Giants?
We’ll be heading to Newlands for our second fixture against MI Cape Town on Tuesday. Courtesy of Klaasen’s blazing 35-ball 85, we beat MICT in our SA20 2024 season opener by 11 runs via the DLS method in a rain-curtailed match. Our boys also won both matches against MICT last season and Tuesday’s encounter presents us a golden chance to get back to winning ways.
Brief Scores: Durban’s Super Giants 159/7 in 20 overs (Wiaan Mulder 52; Simon Harmer 4/18) lose to Sunrisers Eastern Cape 163/5 in 19.2 overs (Tristan Stubbs 66*; Marcus Stoinis 2/27) by five wickets.