Shubham Ranjane gave Joburg Super Kings a strong finish with a brilliant unbeaten half-century, helping the home side to 205/4 in their Betway SA20 match against the Durban Super Giants at the Wanderers on Thursday evening.
The visitors won the toss and elected to bowl first. Their captain, Aiden Markram, thought that the pitch looked drier than expected, and felt that his bowlers had a chance of limiting the hosts to an attainable total.
Ranjane, who arrived at the crease in the 11th over, had to do a rebuilding job before accelerating in the final three overs to help JSK reach a competitive total. The American batter scored a crucial unbeaten 50 off 31 balls. This is his maiden SA20 half-century.
Ranjane joined forces with Wiaan Mulder to stabilise JSK's innings with a 64-run fourth-wicket partnership after a collapse in the middle overs. The 31-year-old then contributed to an outstanding 49-run partnership from 16 balls with Donovan Ferreira to send the hosts over the 200-run mark. Ferreira, who joined Ranjane in the middle in the 18th over, scored a sensational 33 from 10 balls (1X4, 4X6).
Faf du Plessis (47) and Matthew de Villiers gave the hosts the perfect start with an 89-run opening stand. They spirited JSK to the highest powerplay score this season. The openers steered the hosts to 69/0 in the the powerplay of which 66 runs in the first five overs.
Kwena Maphaka pulled the visitors back into the contest by conceding a mere three runs in the sixth over. Noor Ahmad backed that with another three-run over in the seventh. Those overs were the beginning of a five-over period of DSG ascendancy in the contest.
The run drought led to the collapse of Du Plessis and De Villiers' partnership in the ninth over. One wicket turned into two when Simon Harmer dismissed Rilee Rossouw for a four-ball duck in the next over. Noor Ahmad put DSG in the driver's seat with Du Plessis' dismissal in the eleventh over. The JSK captain was three runs shy of his eighth SA20 half-century.
Noor Ahmad was the pick of the bowlers for DSG. The Afghanistan spinner took an outstanding three wickets for 12 runs in four overs. Simon Harmer was the only other wicket-taker with a single wicket for 22 runs in four overs.
JOBURG SUPER KINGS: Faf du Plessis (capt), Matthew De Villiers, Rilee Rossouw, Wiaan Mulder, Shubham Ranjane,, Donovan Ferreira (wk), Prenelan Subrayen, Dian Forrester, Duan Jansen, Akeal Hosein, Richard Gleeson.
DURBAN SUPER GIANTS: Devon Conway, KS Williamson, Jos Buttler, Aiden Markram (capt), Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Evan Jones, David Wiese, Eathan Bosch, Simon Harmer, Kwena Maphaka, Noor Ahmad