South Africa's white-ball specialist Faf du Plessis took centre stage at the Wanderers here to power the Joburg Super Kings into the semifinals of SA20, hitting a masterful 92 to help his team beat Sunrisers EasterCape by 24 runs on Sunday.
Du Plessis delivered a consecutive masterful T20 inning to follow up the tournament's maiden century in his last outing. The former Proteas skipper struck 92 from 61 balls (74, 46) that formed the bedrock of the Super Kings' total of 160/6 in 20 overs.
Reeza Hendricks (40 off 36 balls) also played his supporting role to perfection again with the opening partnership yielding 119 in 14.2 overs. The Sunrisers fought back at the backend as they picked up five wickets while restricting the Super Kings to a further 41 runs.
However, the total proved sufficient throughout the day as the Joburg Super Kings bowling unit delivered a fine overall performance. In reply, Maheesh Theekshana set it in motion with the early dismissal of Adam Rossington before the pace of Gerald Coetzee accounted for Jordan Hermann and JJ Smuts.
The Sunrisers needed to rebuild their innings and it was done by new recruit Temba Bavuma. The Proteas' limited-overs skipper timed the ball sweetly in his 50 off just 34 balls, but besides Aiden Markram's 34 he did not have any worthwhile support.
This was due to a brilliant spell of left-arm spin bowling from Super Kings' debutant Kyle Simmons, who tore the heart out of the Sunrisers' middle order with figures of 3-23 from his four overs.
In the end, the Sunrisers Cape Town eventually finished at 136/9 in 20 overs, losing the match by 24 runs. The Sunrisers Eastern Cape have now completed their league fixtures on 19 points.
They will await the result of the final match of Durban's Super Giants against league-leaders Pretoria Capitals later on Sunday afternoon at Centurion to determine their semi-final fate.
Brief scores:
Joburg Super Kings 160/6 in 20 overs (Fa du Plessis 92, REeza Hendricks 40; Aiden Markram 2-7, Sisanda Magala 2-24) beat Sunrisers Eastern Cape 136/9 in 20 overs (Temba Bavuma 50, Aiden Markram 34; Kyle Simmonds 3-23, Gerald Coetzee 2-13, Maheesh Theekshana 2-31, Romario Shepherd 2-24)) by 24 runs.