THE Durban Heat’s opening game of the Mzansi Super League ended in defeat as the Cape Town Blitz won a final over thriller by three wickets at Kingsmead Cricket Stadium on Sunday.

The visitors won the toss and elected to bowl first restricting the home side to 157/5 in their alloted 20 overs.

Khaya Zondo and skipper Albie Morkel were the top scorers in the Heat’s innings scoring 49* and 45 respectively.

Anrich Nortje, the left-arm fast bowler for the Blitz was impressive finishing with 4/32.

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In their bowling effort, the Heat were blown away by Pakistan star Asif Ali who blasted 80 runs off just 33 balls.

Despite the result the Durban Heat will be encouraged by how they recovered with the bat after a poor start. Captain Albie Morkel is looking at the positives going into their second clash of the tournament against the Tshwane Spartans on Wednesday.

“We came back really nicely and I thought that we were actually ahead of the game when we went into the field. We bowled really nicely in patches and (Asif) Ali was a bit of an unknown factor for us but he played well and took the game away from us in two overs,” Morkel said.

The Heat now look forward to a clash with the Tshwane Spartans on Wednesday at Kingsmead.

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