SA20 | Twitter reacts as nature conspires with Klaasen's blinder to hand DSG improbable victory over MICT

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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Durban Super Giants clinched a rain-interrupted humdinger at Kingsmead to get SA20 off to a ravishing start. The hosts had a tall order at hand after Ryan Rickelton's 87 meant they had to chase 208 but Heinrich Klaasen's lusty 85 combined with a timely shower gave them a four-wicket DLS win.

‌After a washout on the opening day in Gqeberha, SA20 finally kicked off on Thursday with some fireworks from Ryan Rickelton. On the back of a 23-run over from Richard Gleeson, the opener catapulted MI Cape Town to their highest-ever powerplay score of 61/0 with Rassie van der Dussen playing second fiddle. The 27-year-old soon raced to his half-century off just 24 balls followed by a brief lull in the big-hitting shenanigans owing to van der Dussen and Dewald Brevis' departure in successive overs. The gung-ho heroics resumed shortly after and by the time Rickelton departed for a phenomenal 51-ball 87, featuring six maximums, the visitors were well placed at 152/4 with the death overs to come. Liam Livingstone kickstarted the action in the backend with two maximums before the newly-minted skipper Kieron Pollard capitalized with a typically explosive unbeaten knock of 31 from just 14 balls, including a ludicrous shovel for six and nearly taking the umpire's head off with a blow down the ground, to propel MI Cape Town to a mammoth total of 207/5 in their 20 overs.
In response, the hosts got off to the worst possible start as former skipper Quinton de Kock succumbed to Kagiso Rabada in the second over before Beuran Hendricks sent Wiaan Mulder's stump cartwheeling with an absolute ripper. A few gorgeous boundaries from Matthew Bretzke helped the Super Giants recover to 52/2 at the end of the powerplay, only for Keemo Paul to hole out immediately after. Nevertheless, Heinrich Klaasen took little time to get going and brought the game back into balance at the halfway stage with the scorecard reading 99/4, despite Breetzke departing for 39 runs struck at 160+. The Proteas reached his fifty in 25 balls and threatened to seal matters in a hurry as he cleared the ropes eight times in his outrageous 35-ball 85 but Rabada timely struck in the 16th over to send him on his way. With no specialist batters remaining for DSG, the pendulum seemed to have swung Cape Town's way except in a final twist, rain made a fatal entry midway through the 17th over. As things stood, the score of 177/6 was 11 above the DLS par, handing the hosts an improbable victory to begin their campaign.

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