Maharaj reflects on poor SA20 campaign, but says Super Giants ‘not giving up’

Despite crashing out of the 2025 edition of the SA20 on Monday night, Durban’s Super Giants captain Keshav Maharaj says the team will give it their all to finish their campaign with a bang.

The Super Giants suffered a six-wicket defeat to the Paarl Royals in the Western Cape on Monday, their sixth defeat in the campaign. They’ve also had two no-results, and just the one win. With eight log points and just the one game to play, against the Joburg Super Kings on Saturday, Maharaj’s team will likely finish last on the six-team log.

‘One of those seasons’

“It’s been two very contrasting seasons,” said Maharaj on Monday night referring to his team playing in the final last year.

“I’ve loved the captaincy. I’ve tried to get the best out of the players, but it hasn’t transferred to the field. It’s been one of those seasons.

“But, I’ve enjoyed it, and there’s still a lot of pride to play for. We’re a proud team and there’s meaning in the badge and for the owners who’ve invested in us.

“We’ve got one game to go, and we’re not giving up. We’re going to try and be as positive as we can be and finish as high up as we can.”

Maharaj pointed to his team’s poor performance in the first six overs of each innings – the powerplay – as the reason for the Super Giants’ struggles.

“I think we lost every power play, whether we were batting or bowling, That’s the starting point. We found some rhythm at stages, the guys put up their hands when needed, and we put on totals that gave us a chance, but when you lose the powerplay, going four wickets down or not taking wickets, then it makes it very hard to come back from that.

“The fielding was also a big concern. We didn’t look like a team that had energy, compared to last year.”

Batting woes

Maharaj admitted the experiment of batting Quinton de Kock at four in the early matches didn’t work.

“There was method to the madness of batting Quinny at four … but we realised after five games it wasn’t working. We needed starts.

“We pushed Quinny back up the order and saw glimpses of what he can do but he didn’t have the support and we weren’t able to get the totals we wanted. And, as a bowling unit, we didn’t take enough wickets in the powerplay.”

For the record, Kane Williamson, with 211 runs in six innings, has been his team’s best batter, taking up fifth position before Tuesday’s game, with De Kock in 17th place with 143 runs from seven innings.

Heinrich Klaasen has managed just 122 runs from his seven knocks, Wiaan Mulder 115 runs from his seven, and Matthew Breetzke 94 runs from six innings.