By An imperious batting display fired Durban Super Giants to the final of the SA20 at the expense of their hosts Joburg Super Kings. Under excellent batting conditions at the wanderers, the Super Giants racked up 211 on the board before burying their opposition under this mountain of runs for a comprehensive 69-run win.
Leading the charge were two buccaneering half-centuries from Heinrich Klaasen (74 off 30) and Wiaan Mulder (50* off 23) after the Super Kings won the toss and opted to chase. The Super Kings began well with the ball, striking twice while conceding just 46 runs in the powerplay.
It was an excellent cameo from Bhanuka Rajapaksa that set the Super Giants up for the final assault. The Sri Lankan struck six boundaries in a 23-ball knock of 35 before falling in the 13th over, when Klaasen had only scored 13 off his first 11 deliveries.
The 15th over bowled by Imran Tahir opened the floodgates. Mulder hit the veteran legspinner for a six and turned over the strike to watch Klaasen go 6, 6, 4, 6 to make it a 29-run over. From 15 off 13, Klaasen hit 37 off his next 9 balls to go to a 22-ball half-century. And he wasn’t done. Three straight sixes came in another 29-run over as he and Mulder tore into JSK’s death-bowling.
In all, the final six overs brought the visitors 102 runs with Mulder getting to a 23-ball half-century himself on the last ball of the innings.
The Super Kings, stung by this double-barrelled assault, were never in the chase once they lost three wickets in the powerplay. There were little contributions from Moeen Ali, Donnovan Ferreira and Doug Bracewell through the middle but they were too few to pose any notion of a threat to the opposition. Junior Dala came back for his second spell and sealed the victory by finishing with four wickets.
The Super Giants will face defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape in the final.
Brief Scores:Durban Super Giants 211/6 in 20 overs (Heinrich Klaasen 74, Wiaan Mulder 50*; Nandre Burger 2-27) beat Joburg Super Kings 142 in 17.4 overs (Moeen Ali 30; Junior Dala 4-38) by 69 runs
