Durban's Super Giants head coach Lance Klusener was not amused at the pitch on offer at Kingsmead during their clash against Joburg Super Kings which saw the home side get bundled out for 86.
Durban's Super Giants bowled out for 86
Playing their third match of the season, Durban's Super Giants won the toss and elected to bat first at their home ground against Joburg Super Kings, a decision that backfired quickly.
JSK opened the bowling with two spinners in the form of Prenelan Subrayen and Akeal Hosein on a tacky pitch. Subrayen ran through the star-studded DSG top order, dismissing Kane Williamson (2 off 6), Devon Conway (4 off 4), and Jos Buttler (12 off 11) inside the first five overs to leave DSG reeling at 21-3.
Part-time spinner Donovan Ferreira then trapped Heinrich Klaasen with a leg-side plan in the seventh over to make matters worse for DSG, whose scoreboad read 25-4. Following a brief 30-run partnership for the fifth wicket between Aiden Markram and Evan Jones, DSG collapsed again, going from 55-4 in 11.1 overs to 86 all out in 17.1.
Subrayen finished with figures of 3-16, while Hosein (1-26) and Ferreira (1-13) shared one wicket each. Seamer Richard Gleeson did the bulk of the clean-up job at the end, picking up three wickets for two runs off his 2.1 overs.
JSK's run-chase didn't get off to a smooth start. In fact, they almost replicated DSG's scoreline, getting reduced to 24-3 in 5.2 overs. But a rescue act from Rilee Rossouw (43 off 32) and Shubham Ranjane (15 off 18) took JSK to safety as they eventually overhauled the target with six wickets and 7.4 overs remaining.
Match 6, Durban's Super Giants vs Joburg Super Kings
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After the match, DSG head coach Lance Klusener minced no words in his criticism of the pitch. "Yeah it hurts a little bit actually. [It was an] awful surface," Klusener said.
"I thought, batting first, batting second, that's not really what the doctor ordered. [I] think if we look back, we could have maybe made a few more runs somehow and then the game would have been tighter. [We] dropped a few catches which don't help.
"But yeah, not a great surface... hopefully we don't see a surface like that again.
On being asked if there were any major takeaways from the match, Klusener talked about a need for improvement in fielding, but wasn't critical of the batting display. "We just need to guard against a surface like this that can take a little bit of confidence away from the batters. So we need to guard against that. But there's not really too much we can take from an 86 [run] game," he said.
This was DSG's joint second-lowest all out total in SA20 history, and the joint eight-lowest for any team. As far as Durban is concerned, only once has a team been all out for a lower total at the venue in SA20 - when Paarl Royals were dismissed for 83 against DSG in SA20 2024.
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