Faf sends a message of his own as he leads JSK into the SA20 semifinals

At a time when Cricket South Africa are allegedly sending e-mails asking for more credit for the success of the SA20 league, Faf du Plessis sent his own message with the bat at the Wanderers on Sunday afternoon: He clearly still has the abs, the skills and the mental strength of old as he spearheaded the Joburg Super Kings’ victory over Sunrisers Eastern Cape.

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Du Plessis scored a brilliant 92 off just 64 balls on a tricky Wanderers pitch that provided uneven bounce and turn, leading Joburg to a competitive 160/6. The Sunrisers chase did not go well as they fell 24 runs short. Temba Bavuma (50 off 34) and Aiden Markram (34 off 30), both international batsmen of class, were the only ones to score more than twenty, showing the difficulty of the conditions.

Super Kings captain Du Plessis had earlier won the toss and elected to bat, noting the dry surface, and, for the second innings in succession, he and Reeza Hendricks notched a century stand for the first wicket.

Hendricks was comfortable playing the supporting act to Du Plessis, but his 40 off 36 balls was still a fluent, quality innings considering the vagaries of the pitch.

But Hendricks’s dismissal off the second ball of the 15^th over, slapping Brydon Carse to deep cover, began a dramatic collapse as Joburg Super Kings crashed from 119 wuthout loss.

Markram removed Matthew Wade (7) and Donovan Ferreira (2) in the 16^th over, and Leeus du Plooy (5) fell to Marco Jansen (4-0-31-1).

Sisanda Magala was outstanding with the ball, taking 2-24 in his four overs, two of them at the death. He dismissed Romario Shepherd (2) in the penultimate over and then claimed the big wicket of Du Plessis, who had been starved of strike as the wickets tumbled, facing just 14 deliveries in five overs.

Combined

The Eastern Cape reply was soon in trouble as fast bowler Gerald Coetzee (2-1-13-2) and mystery spinner Maheesh Theekshana (4-0-31-2) combined to reduce them to 23/3 after five overs, opening bowler Nandre Burger (4-0-21-0) also piling on the pressure.

Bavuma and Markram then came together in a fourth-wicket stand of 59 off 45 balls, but the Proteas white-ball captain had just gone to his 50 when left-arm spinner Kyle Simmonds bowled him with a delivery that kept low.

A fine arm-ball from Simmonds accounted for Tristan Stubbs (5), and his next ball again kept low and trapped Marco Jansen lbw for a duck. Late recruit Simmonds did not get a hat-trick ball though as he had completed his four overs, returning excellent figures of 3/23.

The Super Kings did get a team-hat-trick though as Markram slammed the next ball, the first one back for seamer Shepherd (4-0-24-2), straight to cover-point. From 82/3, Sunrisers crashed to 98/7 before limping to 136/9 to deny Joburg a bonus point.

Not that it matters much because the Super Kings still go through to the semi-finals.

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