Manchester Super Giants 186 for 4 (Walter 80, Klaassen 63) bat Leeds sunrise 166 to 7 (Rickelton 54*, Brook 49, Tongue 4-26), a lead of 20 points.
Zak Crawley won the toss for the Sunrisers, who picked Liam Patterson-White over Abrar Ahmed, and put the Super Giants in to bat, knowing his side were beaten by the same opposition on Tuesday to deny them a direct entry into the final.
The hero of the evening, Tim Seifert, was unable to repeat those feats, depositing the second ball of the match into the safe hands of Nathan Ellis in the deep third. But Walter, a late addition to MSG’s starting line-up, took up the batons with a brilliant 80 off 46 balls, including three fours and eight sixes, most of which were chipped over midwicket in his towering, towering style.
The Super Giants had an unusually slow start by their standards. They made just two of the first nine balls, 30 in the powerplay, their second-lowest total in the tournament. But Jos Buttler quickly found his range to start the scoring, making 33 off 20 balls before sweeping Matthew Potts to Brydon Carse at backward point.
And they fired. Walter, who had quietly had an excellent tournament scoring 225 runs in his four innings, got going with the bowling and went on to score a half-century off 29 balls with six sixes, a combination of power and pure timing.
The Sunrisers were too slow on the overs and had to bring an extra man into the ring for the last seven balls, but Revis and Potts gave their side at least a glimmer as they conceded just six runs off those seven balls, Walter run out for a 46-ball 80 off the last ball, to leave a very difficult total of 186 for 4.
When the Sunrisers battled, the Super Giants knew that breaking the Mitch Marsh-Ryan Rickelton alliance would take them a long way to victory and Tongue did just that, as Sonny Baker caught a ball that should have had ice on it, heatwave or not. And when Tongue also gained weight from Crawley, things looked bad for the Sunrisers.
Brook seemed unaffected by the crisis and was his usual brilliant self, slumping to 49 from 30 until, at perhaps the decisive moment of the game, Baker – expensive but effective – made him a pound. The decision could have been overturned by the DRS, but Crawley has already burned Sunrisers’ only review.
Throughout, Rickleton was purring at an exceptional strike rate, but as earlier in the tournament, he was starved of strike, facing just 20 off the first 75 balls and finishing unbeaten on 54 off 34 as the Super Giants’ excellent bowling attack supported their batsmen and sealed the match.
Economical, exceptionally quick and nasty, Liam Dawson finished with 4 for 26 as the Super Giants took their place in the final, with the Sunrisers finishing on 166 for 7 and 20 short.
Meerkat Match Hero Tongue said: “I’m very happy… It’s tough, it’s a good pitch at the Oval, it moves fast, but we got to the top of the stumps and got the wicket. It was good to know we were in the final at the back end, but we have to reset ourselves.”
Klaassen added: “I’ve been looking for him for a while. I tried to sort things out in the net with the coaches, and the experience helped me today. Paul Walter is very good, and I’m very happy with the guy. He’s been a pocket rocket for us since he arrived.”
