Pretoria Capitals 201 for 4 (Hope 118*, Esterhuizen 37, Wiese 1-34) beat Durban’s Super Giants 186 (Buttler 97*, Peters 3-35, Ngidi 3-39) by 15 runs
However, with 18 runs to get in the final over, Roston Chase nailed attempted yorkers, and Buttler (97*) lost two partners to run-outs. Eventually, PC won by 15 runs but not without a scare.
Hope deals in boundaries
Hope and his opening partner Connor Esterhuizen added 101 in 11 overs. But the latter hardly seemed to be present. While Esterhuizen’s dismissal on a steady 37 off 28 balls ended the partnership, Hope had thumped 59 in 38 deliveries by then. Hope’s innings was a combination of style, power and grace, no matter his next 59 runs took lesser time – 31 balls.
Hope’s innings started with a fortunate inside-edged four, but soon turned into clean big-hitting. There was a beautiful swivel for six, forceful swats over the off side, crunching pulls over mid-on and midwicket, and hard sweeps off the spinners through square leg. Hope brought up fifty in 34 balls, and after he lost Esterhuizen, added 85 in 44 balls with Roston Chase.
SA20’s first retired out
Chase was on 24 in 15 balls – a pretty good pace, but perhaps not good enough for modern T20s. PC strategically retired him out with ten balls left in the innings, and his replacement Sherfane Rutherford fell for a two-ball duck. Dewald Brevis, in next, crashed two sixes – both over deep square leg. The first of them hit a spectator on the forehead, and the second nearly touched the stars before landing in the stands. That propelled PC to 201, leaving DSG with a something special to do.
Buttler fights but lacks support
The required run rate at the halfway mark of the chase was 11.20. DSG were 90 for 3 after ten overs, as all three of Marques Ackerman (27), Kane Williamson (12) and Aiden Markram (16) had departed after looking good. Buttler, who came at No. 3, needed solid company, but he got none of it.
Twenty-four of his first 30 runs came in boundaries, including a variety of shots in the flick, pull, drive and reverse sweep. Buttler deposited Ngidi for successive sixes over extra cover in the 14th over – the first of those took him to fifty – to keep the chase on track, but there was no support from the other end.
Heinrich Klaasen struggled to 16 in 17 balls, and Evan Jones fell first ball. Wiese was Buttler’s only hope, but Ngidi foxed him with a slower ball to get the first of his three wickets. Wiese found Jordan Cox at long-on, Sunil Narine mistimed a pull to midwicket after being cramped for room, and Gerald Coetzee swung to deep midwicket.
With two wickets and two overs remaining, DSG needed another 40 runs to win. Buttler’s fireworks against Williams got 22 of those in the 19th over. With him having retained strike for the start of the final over, DSG still had hope. But PC’s Hope had the final say.
Himanshu Agrawal is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
