Markram and spinners keep DSG alive with demolition of Royals

Durban's Super Giants (DSG) captain Aiden Markram crashed a career-best 108 - his second T20 hundred - and kept the hosts just alive for the SA20 playoffs with a bonus-point win at Kingsmead. After he had the home crowd dancing to his tunes with the bat, Markram also contributed with the ball, dismissing Royals' opener Luhan-dre Pretorius for 7 off 14 balls in a chase of 190.

Markram was among the four spin options that DSG rifled through in changing conditions in Durban. According to a graphic on the host broadcast, Royals' spinners generated 1.5 degrees of average turn in the first innings. Then in second, DSG's spinners, in comparison, achieved a hair-raising 3.6 degrees. When Simon Harmer had David Miller caught brilliantly by Evan Jones for 5, Royals were reduced to 60 for 4. There would be no way back for them. Bjorn Fortuin's unbeaten 35 helped them avoid the ignominy of being bowled out.

DSG leapfrogged Joburg Super Kings to fourth on the points table, but will miss out on the playoffs if JSK win their final league fixture against Royals. MI Cape Town slid to the bottom of the table, but aren't out of contention yet.

Having struck his first half-century of the season against Royals in his previous game in Paarl, Markram hit higher notes against the same opposition in Durban on Saturday. He started well with a drilled four through the covers off left-arm fingerspinner Fortuin and claimed 25 of the 46 runs DSG scored in the powerplay.

Markram slowed down briefly after the powerplay, but he rediscovered his fluency once Sikandar Raza was reintroduced into the attack in the 11th over. He launched Raza over long-off for the first six of the innings and went onto whack three more sixes off the mystery spinner. Raza was eventually left nursing figures of 4-0-57-0, conceding 48 to Markram alone.

Markram reached his half-century off 34 balls and then needed only 21 more balls for his century. He zoomed to the landmark with a sequence of 6,4,6,6 in the 19th over, which cost Royals 28 runs. Markram also lined up Ottneil Baartman, his former team-mate at Sunrisers Eastern Cape, taking the death-bowling specialist for 24 off 12. Baartman, though, did create a chance by drawing a mis-hit from Markram when he was on 79, but Hardus Viljoen closed his hands too early in the deep and dropped it. By the time Markram scooped a full-toss back to Viljoen in the final over of the innings, he had chalked up his career-best score and DSG had crossed 185. Viljoen came away with figures of 4 for 21 in his four overs.

Heinrich Klaasen (29 off 21 balls) and Liam Livingstone (19 off 11 balls) supported their captain Markram with cameos.

DSG's 189 for 7 looked a whole lot bigger once their bowlers, and more specifically their spinners, reduced Royals to 65 for 5 in the 12th over. It was Sunil Narine who produced the opening breakthrough when he bowled Kyle Verreyne through the gate with a sharp-turning offbreak for 23 off 19 balls.

Immediately after the powerplay, Markram had Pretorius chipping a low catch to Kane Williamson at short cover. Livingstone, who was also brought into the attack ahead of Gerald Coetzee and Kwena Maphaka, then chimed in with the wicket of Rubin Herman in the tenth over. In the next over, Harmer aced his match-up against Miller, dismissing him for the fourth time in seven innings in T20 cricket. Harmer maintained his impeccable lines and lengths, returning figures of 4-1-13-1.

It wasn't until the 17th over that two seamers bowled in tandem for DSG. Maphaka castled Raza with a 147kph thunderbolt in the 19th over and combined with Coetzee to seal DSG's first victory at Kingsmead this season.