Durban's Super Giants crash out of SA20 contention as Royals win close encounter in Paarl

Following their 6-wicket loss to the Paarl Royals on Monday evening, Durban's Super Giants can no longer qualify for the knock-out stages of this year's SA20 competition.

It's been a tough few weeks for Lance Klusener's charges, as they've only won one of their nine games.

After winning the toss and opting to bat first, the Super Giants' innings of 143/7 was driven by two overseas players - Kane Williamson and Marcus Stoinis.

Williamson, who came to the wicket with his side in trouble at 4/2 in the second over contributed a composed 45 off 36 balls, while Stoinis, who started slowly, exploded at the back-end of the innings and finished off 55* off 40 balls.

Bjorn Fortuin again proved to be difficult to get away for the batters, finishing with 2/20 in his 4 overs, while young speedster Kwena Maphaka took 2/22.

Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Rubin Hermann (59 off 51) led the Royals' reply as the home side ensured they stayed at or above the required run-rate throughout their innings.

Pretorius played a particularly mature innings, belying his young age as the Royals had lost batting kingpin, Joe Root to the first ball of the innings as he was trapped LBW by Prenelan Subrayen for a golden duck.

The left-hander started slowly before upping his rate, looking in total control before being bowled by Keshav Maharaj for 43 off 29 balls.

When he got out, the Royals still needed 37 to win at slightly more than a run-a-ball. Veteran Dinesh Karthik (21 off 15) and Mitchell Van Buuren (13* off 17) got them to within seven runs before Karthik was dismissed in the penultimate over.

With 3 runs needed of 2 balls, Dayyaan Galiem, who had faced a few dot balls in the final over, managed to launch Wiaan Mulder over midwicket for the match-winning boundary.