• Hope, Ngidi star as Capitals down DSG

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    Shai Hope blasted the highest SA20 individual score before Lungi Ngidi claimed the league’s first hat-trick to power the Pretoria Capitals to a 15-run victory over Durban’s Super Giants at Kingsmead on Wednesday night.

    Hope struck an unbeaten 118 off 69 balls, smashing nine sixes and nine fours, to steer the Capitals to 201-4.

    Despite Hope’s pyrotechnics, the home side were still right in it heading into the final over, needing 18 runs to win and an in-form Jos Buttler at the crease.

    Buttler, who was within touching distance of his own maiden century, could 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 left stranded on 97* with both Kwena Maphaka and Noor Ahmad run out in the final over.

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    Earlier in DSG’s reply, Ngidi also entered the record books with his hat-trick despite an indifferent opening spell. The Proteas seamer returned to remove David Wiese and Sunil Narine before Gerald Coetzee was the final hat-trick victim when he held out in the deep.

    But this sultry evening in Durban belonged to Hope. The West Indies T20I 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.

    It certainly was an all-action night for Chase after the West Indian had become the first SA20 batsman to be retired out.

    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 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 off five) to push Capitals’ past 200.

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    The 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 hosts could simply not put together any partnerships of substance, 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 Capitals moved up to fourth place on 11 points after this victory with DSG slipping down to fifth on eight points.

    Photo: Gerhard Duraan/Sportzpics

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    Lindiz Vanzilla