The Durban crowd turned up, with an attendance of 13,124, as Donovan Ferreira helped the Johannesburg Super Kings record their first victory of the SA20.

First and foremost, I honestly feel very privileged to have watched such an amazing game of cricket. Both captains showed great tactical strengths whilst we got to see some outstanding knocks from Donovan Ferreira, Quinton De Kock and Kyle Mayers

We were also highly privileged to witness some amazing death bowling from the West Indies express bowler Kyle Mayers. The scoreline of this match is honestly not a true reflection of the game that was just played.

As a lifelong cricket fan, I honestly do not remember seeing Kingsmead this full since the Proteas played Australia in the 2018 series.

Although it is still early on in the tournament, I would say that the Durban Super Giants have the most patriotic fans. Even through my Samsung TV, I could hear the chants of: “DSG… DSG….. DSG”! I also enjoyed seeing Lance Klusener (Zulu) and Jonty Rhodes (The Maritzburg Mamba), being interviewed on television while they cracked jokes with each other.

In terms of leadership, I thought Faf Du Plessis led the Joburg Super Kings really well. He made a really bold decision bowling Donavan Ferreira and Reeza Hendricks in tandem with each other as we could clearly see both left-handers struggling against right arm off spin.

Quinton De Kock also led the Durban Super Giants really well. The only slight critique that I have (with the benefit of hindsight), is that I thought that he bowled Dwaine Pretorius for too long, and, as a result, he leaked too many runs bowling wide Yorkers. But other than that he did really well.

Personally, I thought the game was lost with a spell of brilliant bowling from JSK restricting Heinrich Klaasen to 20 off 21 balls and Wiaan Mulder to 10 off 9. This resulted in JSK scoring 30 runs off five overs (if extras are excluded).

I hope that Lance Klusener shifts Dwaine Pretorius to 3 and Klaasen to 4 with Holder at 5 so that they can find more boundaries in the early middle overs in case one of the openers gets out.

In terms of the outstanding performers from this awesome spectacle, I thought Donovan Ferreira used the pace of the ball really well and played smart cricket shots. He also played smart attacking cricket and played the appropriate attacking and defensive shots at the right time. Aside from the outstanding knock he also picked up his first wicket of the tournament.

Quinton De Kock batted really well. Once again, he was really strong square of the wicket. His knock of 78 off 52 was honestly one of the best knocks that I have seen him play in a long time. The only slight criticism that I have is, I thought he looked a bit too uncomfortable against Reeza Hendricks, but I thought he played Donovan Ferreira quite well and was unlucky to get out.

I was also extremely shocked to see Kyle Mayers smash 39 off 29. Those two sixes that he hit out of Kingsmead are probably going to land at Van Reenen’s Pass.

Romario Shepherd also played very well for his 40 0ff 19 deliveries. His strike rate of 210.53 and four sixes proves that he is more than just a finisher in t20 cricket.

In terms of bowling, my outstanding bowlers were: Prenelan Subrayen and Reeza Hendricks as well as Alzarri Joseph at the death. Prenelan Subrayen bowled well to his field and managed to get two wickets for 26 runs off three overs, whilst Reeza Hendricks (who many refer to as a part-timer) went for 14 runs off his four overs.

Alzarri Joseph also absorbed a lot of pressure in his final over to ensure that his side got over the line.

Thank you for taking the time to read the article and I hope you are all enjoying the SA20