In what was a must-win game for the Joburg Super Kings at Boland Park in Paarl, the visitors came out all guns blazing despite losing players to injury. They outplayed the Paarl Royals in all facets of the game to register a comfortable 44-run win and a place in the playoffs knocking Durban Super Giants out and also making sure Paarl finish in 3rd place as both these teams will face the Eliminator clash as well.
The Super Kings rode on a magnificent counter-attacking half-century from Leus du Plooy who stayed unbeaten till the end to post a challenging 166/5 in 20 overs as David Miller the captain of Royals walked out after a dive in the outfield and did not return to the field nor did he bat in the chase. While defending the score, Prenelan Subrayen picked up 3 wickets and the every wily Imran Tahir picked up 2 wickets alongside Nandre Burger as the Super Kings won the game quite easily in the end to get a bonus point and make it to the final 4.
Leus du Plooy’s unbeaten half-century powers Joburg Super Kings to 166/5Â
Winning the toss and deciding to bat first, Neil Trimmers the keeper batter walked out to bat with new stand-in captain James Vince while Bjorn Fortuin had ball in hand for the Paarl Royals. The Super Kings got off to a shaky start as they lost Vince in the first over for a silver duck to Fortuin. Michael Pepper came out to bat next. Pepper and Trimmers started building a solid stand as they played steadily trying to lay the foundation for others to follow.
They played through the powerplay where the score was 39/1 in 6 overs. The duo put on 49 for the second wicket with Pepper scoring the bulk of the runs before he fell for 27 off 23 balls with 3 fours and one six to his name to Waqar Salamkheil. Matthew de Villiers walked out to bat next. Trimmers and de Villiers added another 24 runs for the third wicket before the debutant fell for a well made fighting 39 off 37 balls with 4 fours to his name LBW to Sikandar Raza.
Leus du Plooy came out to bat next to join de Villiers in the middle. The duo started to build a partnership as du Plooy was quickly off the blocks. Matthew also complimented him well as the duo laid the foundation for a strong finish for the Super Kings. The duo added a crucial 45-run stand for the 4th wicket before Matthew fell for 27 off 23 balls with one four to his name to Salamkheil yet again.
Wiaan Mulder came out to bat next. du Plooy was on a roll as he and Mulder added 13 runs for the 5th wicket before Mulder fell for 8 off 7 balls with one boundary to his name to Mokoena. Dian Forrester came out to bat with JSK at 132/5 in 18 overs.
Leus du Plooy provided the finishing kick while Forrester managed to hit a maximum and remained 7* off 2 balls but it was du Plooy who completed his fifty as the Super Kings scored 34 runs in the last 2 overs to finish with 166/5 in 20 overs with du Plooy unbeaten on 54 off 27 balls with 5 fours and 3 sixes to his name while Forrester was unbeaten on 7 off 2 balls with one six to his name. 4 extras given by the fielding side.
The bowlers of Paarl Royals bowled decently. Waqar Salamkheil finished with 2/42 in 4 overs. Bjorn Fortuin finished with 1/17 in 3 overs. Mokoena finished with 1/28 in 3 overs. Sikandar Raza picked up 1/27 in 3 overs. Daniel Lawrence bowled 4 overs for 24 runs while Ottniel Baartman finished with 0/27 in 3 overs. This meant that Paarl Royals needed 167 runs to win to knock Joburg Super Kings out and help the Royals finish in second place.
Prenelan Subrayen’s 3-wicket haul limits Paarl Royals to 122 in 18.1 overs
Chasing 167 for the win, Lhuan dre Pretorius and Asa Tribe came out to open for the Paarl Royals while Akeal Hosein had ball in hand for the Joburg Super Kings. The openers got the team off to a sedate start adding 13 in the first 3 overs before Tribe fell for 5 off 9 balls clean bowled by Prenelan Subrayen. Daniel Lawrence came to the crease next.
Lawrence and Pretorius tried to form a partnership as the innings grew with Pretorius trying to show intent while Lawrence looked at ease while batting. The Royals were ahead in the powerplay as they posted 43/1 in 6 overs compared to where the Super Kings were. The duo put on 33 runs for the second wicket before Pretorius fell after getting a start falling for 32 off 25 balls with 4 fours to his name to Imran Tahir thanks to good usage of DRS for caught behind.
Rubin Hermann came out to bat next. Lawrence continued his merry ways while Hermann tried to get himself in as partnership was the need of the hour for the Royals. The duo added 35 runs for the 3rd wicket before Hermann fell for a laboured 14 off 17 balls with 2 fours to his name to Wiaan Mulder. Delano Potgieter came out to bat next and did not last long as he fell for the addition of one run to the score falling for 1 off 4 balls to that man Tahir yet again. Sikandar Raza came in with the score at 82/4 in 12.1 overs.
Lawrence kept up the fight from one end while Raza was struggling out there. They added another 18 runs to the score before Raza fell for 3 off 8 balls to Subrayen. Royals were now 100/5 in 14.2 overs. Bjorn Fortuin came out to bat next. Another 7 runs were added to the score before Fortuin fell for 6 off 4 balls with one four to his name to Nandre Burger as he clean bowled him. Nqobani Mokoena came out to bat next.
Just 6 more runs were added before JSK got the big fish dismissed as the last of the recognised batter Daniel Lawrence fell for a well made 45 off 29 balls with one four and three sixes to his name as he was cleaned up by Akeal Hosein. Ottniel Baartman came out to bat next. Another 4 runs were added to the score before Mokoena fell for 4 off 5 balls to Burger. Waqar Salamkheil came out to bat next.
Another 5 runs were added to the score before Salamkheil was cleaned up at the start of the 19th over by Subrayen for 1 off 3 balls to reduce the hosts to 122/9 in 18.1 overs. With David Miller unable to bat, the match ended there with him being absent hurt. Baartman remained unbeaten on 6 off 5 balls with 1 four to his name. 5 extras given by the fielding side.
The Joburg Super Kings bowlers bowled well with Prenelan Subrayen leading the way with 3/14 in 3.1 overs. He was ably assisted by the wily experienced Imran Tahir who finished with 2/17 in 4 overs. Nandre Burger finished with 2/29 in 4 overs. Akeal Hosein finished with 1/31 in 4 overs. Wiaan Mulder finished with 1/28 in 3 overs. So, Super Kings win by 44 runs to get the bonus point as well and qualify for playoffs. Leus du Plooy was awarded the Player of the Match.
So, the Joburg Super Kings finish with 22 points from 10 games and qualifies for the playoffs in 4th place. Paarl Royals with this loss finish on 24 points from 10 games in 3rd place and these two sides will meet in the Eliminator on Thursday.
What Lies Ahead
The league stage is done and dusted and now it’s time for the Playoffs to begin in SA20 2026. First-up will the the Qualifier 1 from Kingsmead in Durban as the Sunrisers Eastern Cape will take on Pretoria Capitals on Wednesday 21st January, 2026 from 9 PM IST onwards. The winner goes straight through to the finals and the loser will get a second bite in the cherry.
We will see how this game pans out as the playoffs are now upon us.