FAF DU PLESSIS STARS AS SUPER KINGS ELIMINATE MI IN MLC

Fabulous at 40 certainly rings true for Faf du Plessis as he enjoys his best ever Major League Cricket Season.

Having celebrated the milestone birthday at the start of MLC Season 2, the Joburg Super Kings and Texas Super Kings skipper has enjoyed a fresh lease of life.

His insatiable appetite for scoring big runs has seen Du Plessis rise to the top of the MLC run-scoring charts.

The veteran batter emphasised his class with 72 off 49 balls for TSK in the Eliminator last night to knock out MI New York.

It was Du Plessis’s third half-century in seven innings to go along with his earlier century, which has boosted his run tally to 375 at an average of 53.57 and strike-rate of 168.16.

Du Plessis now only needs 13 runs to surpass MINY’s Nicholas Pooran’s 388 scored in Season 1 to register the highest tally in a MLC season.

Du Plessis will potentially have two opportunities to achieve the record with the Super Kings set to take on the loser between Washington Freedom and San Francisco Unicorns in Saturday's Challenger before the much-anticipated Grand Final.

Defending champions MI New York could only muster 163/8, in what was billed as "The Heavyweight Showdown", after losing the two big wickets of Dewald Brevis (0) and Pooran (8) within the powerplay.

Durban’s Super Giants all-rounder Marcus Stoinis (2/18 from four overs) was excellent with the new ball for TSK as he delivered the early jabs by having his DSG teammate Pooran caught at mid-on.

Dewald Brevis and Nicholas Pooran were dismissed cheaply, while Marcus Stoinis with the ball and Rashid Khan with the bat played their part in an intriguing MLC Eliminator.

MINY staged a partial recovery through Afghanistan superstar Rashid Khan, who struck a 30-ball 55 to help lift his team to a respectable total, but ultimately it was not enough as Du Plessis and Devon Conway (51 not out) set about the chase with TSK ultimately cruising home by nine wickets.

“It was really good intent through the powerplay. If you do that you can put the bowlers under pressure.

“In chases, I feel it is important to not start slow and show that intent. If you get a good powerplay then you can get ahead in the game. We were 50 for no loss and that was important,” Du Plessis said.

“(On the 101-run partnership with Conway) It was the balance of someone playing with merit, looking at the situation of the game.

“I try being the aggressor. Sometimes batting partnerships work like that. On another day, he can take it up and I can play second fiddle.

“He (Conway) would be frustrated with that knock, it was one of those scratchy innings but an in-batter is always good to have in such chases. 

“There is a lesson in that, that you stick it out, and then you get one out of the middle, and the confidence flows again.”