Middle-order batsman Heino Kuhn relished the Player of the Match award, after the Nelson Mandela Bay Giants beat the Jozi Stars by 24 runs in the Mzansi Super League on Sunday.

Chasing a 168-run target at St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth, the Stars were limited to an insufficient 143-5.

Kuhn had shared an 85-run alliance with fellow middle-order batsman Farhaan Behardien, who joined the Giants from the Cape Town Blitz earlier this year. Kuhn and Behardien have played together at the Titans for several years.

‘You have to rebuild when you lose early wickets. I have been batting with Farhaan for 14 years and he made the job easy for me. We decided to take it to the 15th over and take on from there,’ said Kuhn, who hit 47 from 37 balls. He also three catches to remove opener Reeza Hendricks, opposition captain Temba Bavuma and Australian recruit Dan Christian.

‘It was tough in the fielding, but we took some good catches,’ he added.

Bavuma lamented a poor fielding performance, which helped the Giants recover from 48-4 to a final total of 167-7.

‘It was important to take wickets with the new ball. But we weren’t sharp enough in the field. Our fielding didn’t support us because of the number of twos they took. PE is the type of ground on which you can’t score much in the back end,’ he concluded.

Photo: BackPagePix