Shai Hope blasted the highest individual score of the SA20 before Lungi Ngidi claimed the League’s first-ever hat trick to power Pretoria Capitals to a 15-run victory over Durban’s Super Giants at Kingsmead.
Hope struck an unbeaten 118 off 69 balls, whacking nine sixes and nine boundaries, to steer the Capitals to 201/4.
It was a night of records with the Kingsmead faithful treated to a thriller with all three results still on the offering heading into the final over with Super Giants requiring 18
runs to win with an in-form Jos Buttler at the crease.
Buttler, who was within touching distance of his own maiden SA20 century, could unfortunately not drag DSG over the finishing line as Roston Chase delivered a sequence of accurate yorkers to close out the Capitals’ second victory of the competition.
Buttler was literally left stranded on 97 not out with both Kwena Maphaka and Noor Ahmad run out in the Chase’s last over.
It certainly was an all-action night for Chase after the West Indian had become the first batter to be ‘Retired Out’ earlier in the Capitals’ innings.
But this sultry evening in Durban belonged to Hope. The West Indies Twenty20 captain flexed his biceps, forming an opening 106-run partnership with Connor Esterhuizen (37 off 28 balls) that laid the platform, before another whirlwind 85 off 44 balls with Chase (24 off 15 balls) for the second wicket.
Hope was the primary aggressor in the partnership, striking 58 off 29 balls, which led to the Capitals calling in Chase to get the in-form Sherfane Rutherford to the crease.
But unfortunately it backfired when Maphaka had the power-hitter caught by Aiden Markram for a second-ball duck.
Hope maintained the momentum though with Dewald Brevis (12) to push Capitals’ past 200.
The four Player of the Match candidates were Jos Buttler, Shai Hope, Sunil Narine and Lizaad Williams with the centurion winning 52.2% of the fan vote.
Super Giants’ chase began in a breezy fashion with new opener Marques Ackerman’s 27 off 17 balls before Buttler played a lone hand for the remainder of the innings.
The home side could simply not put together the partnerships with Gideon Peters, who was playing his first competitive match in nine months, claiming the back-to-back wickets of Heinrich Klaasen and Evan Jones to go with his earlier scalp of Aiden Markram, before Ngidi entered the fray.
The Proteas seam bowler showed his experience to put an indifferent opening spell behind him to etch his name into the SA20 history books.
David Wiese was the first victim, followed by Sunil Narine before Gerald Coetzee completed the hat-trick when he held out in the deep.
Capitals moved up to fourth place on the log standings with 11 points after this victory with DSG slipping down to fifth on eight points.
