Keshav Maharaj is coming off a three-wicket haul.
Pretoria Capitals (PC) and Durban’s Super Giants (DSG) will take on each other in Match No.12 of the SA20 2026 on December 3. Here is our PC vs DSG game plan for the contest to be played at The SuperSport Park in Centurion.
Pretoria Capitals: Will Smeed, Bryce Parsons, Jordan Cox (wk), Connor Esterhuizen, Wihan Lubbe, Dewald Brevis, Sherfane Rutherford, Keshav Maharaj (c), Lizaad Williams, Lungi Ngidi, and Tymal Mills.
Durban’s Super Giants: Kane Williamson, Jos Buttler, Tony de Zorzi, Aiden Markram (c), Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Evan Jones, David Wiese, Eathan Bosch, Simon Harmer, Kwena Maphaka, and Noor Ahmad.
The SuperSport Park is one of the better venues for batting in the country, with some assistance for seamers. The average first innings score at the venue in the previous season was 165.
The record here is in favour of the team batting first, with a win percentage of 61.1% compared to 33.3% by the team batting second. Despite that, the toss-winning team is likely to choose to bowl first.
The Pretoria Capitals captain, Keshav Maharaj, was the game-changer for them in the previous game against MI Cape Town. On a good batting pitch, the left-arm spinner returned with three wickets for 28 runs in his four overs. He took key wickets of Nicholas Pooran and Jason Smith with an outstanding display of bowling.
His former franchise, Durban’s Super Giants, will be up against him on Saturday night. They have a formidable batting unit on paper, but apart from Devon Conway, others haven’t fired yet. The battle between the DSG batters and Keshav Maharaj could be decisive in this game.
If we look at the batters’ record of the Super Giants against the left-arm orthodox spinners, it doesn’t look good. Conway, being a left-hander, has good numbers across phases, but his stint with DSG is over for this season. Moreover, Sunil Narine will not be available for this game.
Kane Williamson and Jos Buttler are both pretty good against this bowling type in the middle overs, but they struggle badly in the middle overs. Buttler, in particular, doesn’t have a good head-to-head matchup against Keshav Maharaj, scoring 16 off 17 while losing his wicket twice.
DSG captain Aiden Markram’s issues versus SLA are well known. A strike rate of around 120 and an average of less than 30 doesn’t inspire confidence. Tony de Zorzi is likely to get a game at the top, but his numbers aren’t promising either.
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Given how the other batters have fared against left-arm spinners, DSG’s best chance of dealing with the Keshav Maharaj problem will be Heinrich Klaasen.
The wicket-keeper batter has not been in the best of form, managing only 54 runs from three innings at a strike rate of 135. However, there are no question marks about his quality and what he can do when he gets going.
Klaasen has an outstanding record against the SLAs, striking at 166 while averaging over 48 in this period. Considering this, the DSG team would be wise to send him higher up the order.
The Super Giants should open the innings with Buttler and Williamson, with Klaasen coming in at No.3 or 4. Additionally, they should hold back Markram as much as they can. This would give them a better chance of maximising their resources and minimising the spin threat from the opponent.
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