Durban [South Africa], January 10 : The Durban's Super Giants (DSG) vs Sunrisers Eastern Cape (SEC) fixture at Kingsmead on Friday was abandoned without a toss due to inclement weather.
According to an SA20 release, a healthy and expectant crowd arrived at Kingsmead, hopeful of an exciting game of cricket but unfortunately, consistent rain throughout the afternoon and evening saw the umpires call the match off at 20:00 local time.
The two points each team receives consolidate Sunrisers Eastern Cape's position at the top of the table (17 points after 6 matches) and take Durban's Super Giants to within one point of a playoff berth (11 points after 7 matches), but Pretoria Capitals have a match in hand over the star-studded DSG.
Aiden Markram's side will bemoan the stop-start nature of their 2025-26 season with three no results from their seven matches, notwithstanding their three losses putting them on the back foot for the second half of the group stage. Sunrisers, meanwhile, who hold a nine-point advantage over DSG, now only need one more win from their remaining four group matches to seal their place in the Playoffs.
The two teams will be hoping for better luck on Sunday when they're set to meet in at St George's Park in the reverse fixture (first ball at 15:30 SAST).
The DSG vs SEC match marked the second consecutive SA20 fixture to be abandoned due to weather.
The Joburg Super Kings vs Paarl Royals SA20 match at the Wanderers on Thursday was also abandoned due to lightning.
Both teams were awarded two points, lifting Super Kings to 17 points, while Royals remained in third position on 15 points.
In the match, Royals captain David Miller had earlier won the toss under clear skies and elected to bowl. His Super Kings counterpart stated that he, too, would have taken the first strike and certainly would have taken advantage early on, as per an SA20 release.
Du Plessis and his new opening partner, James Vince, struck a sweet note from the outset as they followed up their rapid 32-run stand against MI Cape Town with a more substantial 73 from only 7.3 overs.
Despite not quite middling the ball, Du Plessis still managed to hack his way to 39 off only 24 balls (6x4, 1x6) as he taught Royals teenage seamer Nqobani Mokoena a few harsh lessons on his Bullring debut.
Du Plessis took two boundaries off Mokoena's first over before really putting his foot down in the second with three boundaries and a six in the follow-up over.
With Vince also taking care of left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin through a six and four in the third over, the Super Kings raced to 64 without loss when the Powerplay drew to a close.
Faf du Plessis, James Vince, Sikandar Raza and Matthew de Villiers all made an impression at Wanderers before inclement weather intervened.
But the Royals tossed their ball to their golden arm Sikander Raza in the seventh over and the Zimbabwe T20 captain made an immediate impact with the very first ball of his spell when he clean bowled Du Plessis with a gorgeous off-spinner that drifted in the air before gripping and turning through the gate to crash into the stumps.
The dismissal did not stem JSK's momentum though, with Matthew de Villiers and Vince adding a further 56 from 39 deliveries for the second wicket. De Villiers upstaged his senior partner, who had settled into the anchor role after reaching his maiden SA20 50 off 33 balls, with a rapid 30 off 22 balls.
At this stage, JSK were targeting a total in the region of 200 before Raza (2/26) intervened again, having De Villiers caught on the long-off boundary, to pick up his ninth wicket of the competition in just three matches.
The JSK innings fell away a bit from hereon, especially after Wiaan Mulder, Vince and Shubham Ranjane all fell in quick succession before a floodlight failure further halted their momentum, with Donovan Ferreira also perishing immediately after the resumption.
Royals had done well to claw their way back into the contest and would have felt confident of chasing JSK's eventual 187/6, but ultimately had to settle for a share of the spoils when the lightning intervened.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
