Twitter Reactions: Nelson Mandela Bay Giants win the battle of openers to tighten their grip on the top spot

The Cape Town Blitz have made life difficult for themselves by losing an easy game against the Nelson Mandela Bay Giants. This game between these two teams literally seemed like a battle of the openers. A bulk of the scoring was done by the opening batsmen of both sides. The rest, however, disappointed and failed to deliver the goods with the bat. Nelson Mandela Bay Giants would be extremely pleased with this victory as they have now managed to firm their grip over the top spot with 27 points.

The Giants were asked to bat first in this game. Their openers, Ben Dunk and Matthew Breetzke, played wonderful knocks. They constantly maintained the pressure on the opposition by hitting regular boundaries. The wicket-keeper batsman was a little more cautious in his approach. He scored 75 off 56 balls in an innings that included six fours and four sixes. Breetzke, on the other hand, was the aggressor and returned with a 40-ball 64. In 14 overs, these two added 136 runs together.

While they seemed to be heading towards a huge score, the middle order failed to reach the expectations. None of the batsmen other than the openers managed to get to the double figures. Thus, the Giants had to settle with 173/6. Wahab Riaz picked up three wickets while Sisanda Magala accounted for two.

The Nelson Mandela Bay Giants’ bowlers pick wickets in tandem

The Cape Town Blitz got off to such kind of start that it is hard to believe that they lost the game. Skipper Quinton de Kock took them off to a flyer with his 19-ball 40. He smashed seven fours and a six but couldn’t carry on for long. His partner Janneman Malan also came up with a great knock and mustered 60 runs from 41 balls. At 106/2 after 10 overs, it should have been a cakewalk for the Blitz. But they chose to mess things up.

The middle-order performed poorly and it was nothing less than suicidal. Just two batsmen got to the double figures and most of them seemed to have got into a shell. As a result, the home team was restricted to 162/8 and lost the game by 11 runs which put their knockout place in jeopardy now.

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