Manchester Super Giants 186 for 4 (Walter 80, Klaasen 63) beat Sunrisers Leeds 166 for 7 (Rickelton 54*, Brook 49, Tongue 4-26) by 20 runs

Zak Crawley won the toss for Sunrisers, who had selected Liam Patterson-White in place of Abrar Ahmed, and he put Super Giants into bat, mindful that his side had been thumped by the same opposition on Tuesday to deny them direct entry to the Final.

The hero of that evening, Tim Seifert, couldn’t repeat those heroics, depositing the match’s second ball into the safe hands of Nathan Ellis at deep third. But Walter, a late addition to MSG’s starting line-up, took up the cudgels with a brilliant 80 from 46 balls, including three fours and eight sixes, the majority mown over midwicket with his towering, long-levered approach.

Super Giants had an unusually slow start by their standards. They made just two off their first nine balls, and 30 in the powerplay, their second-lowest total of the tournament. But Jos Buttler soon found his range to kickstart the scoring, making 33 from 20 balls before thrashing Matthew Potts to Brydon Carse at backward point.

And launch they did. Walter, having a quietly excellent tournament having scored 225 runs in his four innings, set about the bowling and went to a 29-ball half-century with six sixes, a mixture of power and pure timing.

Sunrisers were too slow with their 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 from those seven balls, Walter run out for a 46-ball 80 off the last ball, to leave a hugely challenging total of 186 for 4.

When Sunrisers batted, Super Giants would have known that breaking the Mitch Marsh-Ryan Rickelton alliance would take them a long way towards victory and Tongue did just that, Sonny Baker pouching a ball that must have had snow on it, heatwave or not. And when Tongue also got Crawley lbw, things were looking bad for Sunrisers.

Brook seems and seemed untouched by crisis and was his usual brilliant self, easing to 49 off 30 until, in perhaps the game’s key moment, Baker – expensive but effective – had him lbw. The decision could have been overturned by DRS, but Crawley had already burned Sunrisers’ only review.

All the while Rickelton was purring along at an exceptional strike rate, but as earlier in the tournament he was starved of the strike, facing just 20 of the first 75 balls and ending unbeaten on 54 off 34 as the Super Giants’ excellent bowling attack backed up their batters and closed the game out.

Liam Dawson was economical and Tongue exceptional, fast and nasty, ending with 4 for 26 as the Super Giants took their place in the final, the Sunrisers finishing on 166 for 7, 20 runs short.

Meerkat Match Hero Tongue said: “I’m very happy… it’s tough, it’s a good pitch at the Oval, it travels quick, but we hit the top of the stumps and we got the wickets. It was nice knowing that we were in the final towards the back end, but we’ve got to reset.”

Klaasen added: “I was searching for it for a while. I tried to sort out things in the nets with the coaches, and experience helped today. Paul Walter is so good, I am so pleased for the guy, he has been a pocket rocket for us since he came in.”