Ken Borland

The Joburg Super Kings were playing in conditions as close to the Wanderers as you can get, but in the end the two-time defending champions, Sunrisers Eastern Cape, were too great an adversary as they won their SA20 Eliminator by a convincing 32 runs at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Wednesday night.

Having won the toss and followed their usual template by sending the opposition in to bat first, Super Kings had reduced Sunrisers to 75 for four after nine overs and all was well. But the Eastern Cape skipper, Aiden Markram, was still there and his experience and skill in pacing the rest of the innings were vital.

Markram and Tristan Stubbs added 56 off 43 balls for the fifth wicket, before Stubbs was dismissed by veteran leg-spinner Imran Tahir (4-0-21-2) at the start of the 17^th over for 26 off 21 deliveries. But Marco Jansen came in and proved that he too can be a deadly force at the death.

Sunrisers Eastern Cape lashed 48 runs from the last three overs to take them to a competitive 184 for six. Markram played the key innings of 62 not out off 40 balls, while Jansen belted 23 off 12.

Poor old Lutho Sipamla has hit the heights in this year’s SA20 and has been rightly praised far and wide. But on Wednesday he travelled all over SuperSport Park, conceding 72 runs in his four overs.

Openers David Bedingham (27 off 14) and Tony de Zorzi (14 off 9) laid into him with the new ball, his two overs going for 33 runs as Sunrisers lashed 42 runs off the first three overs. Sipamla then had the misfortune to bowl the penultimate over and was massacred for 29 runs as he went for three sixes and two fours.

Markram has been full of praise for his bowlers for keeping them alive in this year’s competition and they once again came to the fore to defend a total that the captain admitted he “was a little worried about”.

Devon Conway opened the batting for Super Kings and gave them a brisk start with his 30 off 20 balls. But the other batsmen battled to obtain the same momentum as the Sunrisers bowlers tightened up and gave little away.

Joburg had battled through to 91 for three after 12 overs on the hour mark, when Craig Overton struck a devastating double-blow. The Englishman had Wihan Lubbe (13 off 18) caught behind and then ended a maiden over by dismissing the dangerous Moeen Ali for a duck, Liam Dawson taking a sharp catch at backward point.

The Super Kings, without the injured Donovan Ferreira and a host of bowlers who are also crocked, just weren’t as agile as their opponents in adapting to tough situations. Jonny Bairstow hit left-arm spinner Dawson for two fours and a six in the 15^th over to move quickly to 37 off 16 balls, but he then took up a reverse-sweep position too soon and the bowler fired in the yorker to bowl Joburg’s last hope.

Markram called his bowlers “incredible”, while appreciating that the troublesome batting is moving in the right direction.

“We probably could have got a few more runs with the bat and I would have been happy with 195+ or more than 200 if we really pulled away. So I was a little worried when we went out on to the field to defend 185, but luckily our bowlers are incredible and they bring a lot of calm.

“The bowlers have been really good the whole tournament and there are so many different types of experience in the attack, especially with the seamers. They bounce ideas off each other, they almost run the show with very good plans and I’m happy with that. Liam Dawson has also been massively under the radar because he really helps us get ahead of the game.

“The batting just hasn’t clicked so we keep having to play catch-up, but there were good signs tonight. That opening partnership was massive, it allows you, if you lose a flurry of wickets, a bit of time, which is important, especially at a venue like this. The other guys were able to spend some time at the wicket, which was positive,” Markram said.

The Sunrisers Eastern Cape now take on Paarl Royals at Centurion on Thursday evening, the winner going through to the final against MI Cape Town at the Wanderers on Saturday.

Joburg Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming, ever pragmatic, intimated that it felt like his team had been put out of their agony.

“If we unravel the season a bit, then we’ve probably just been hanging on. We’ve been missing a lot of glue because of injuries and we’ve had holes in each game, so we just haven’t been accurate enough. Sunrisers played very well, they got themselves out of a difficult situation, but I thought 185 was about par.

“But we were sloppy with the bat, we gave wickets away too often and we needed one guy to get 75 or so. I hate looking for excuses but our player turnover has been high and we were just not able to settle. I take responsibility because in trying to take the team forward, I chopped and changed a bit and things got a bit confused. We were a bit frantic with the bat tonight when we needed calm,” Fleming said.

It’s been an SA20 campaign of some angst for the Pretoria Capitals and their new coach Jonathan Trott, but a change of captain and bringing in a handful of fresh players saw them ease to an assured bonus point victory over the Joburg Super Kings at Centurion on Tuesday night, which will provide a considerable confidence-boost as the playoffs loom.

The Capitals came into this crucial local derby having won just one of their previous seven matches, but two No-Results and a bonus point win meant they weren’t knocked out of contention just yet. But another victory was almost essential and they pulled it off in style, winning by six wickets with fully eight overs to spare.

The triumph was set up in the field after new skipper Kyle Verreynne won the toss and sent Joburg in to bat. The bowlers responded with a superb display of calm discipline – conceding just one leg-bye and one wide as extras epitomised that – and the Capitals were brilliant in the field.

The pressure saw the Super Kings restricted to just 99 for nine in their 20 overs, the lowest SA20 total ever at Centurion.

Two players making their SA20 debuts set the tone with the ball. Australian Thomas Rogers was excellent up front, taking one for 20 in his four overs, while Gideon Peters, from North-West via Border but born in Pretoria, caused great unease in the middle overs with his sheer pace and excellent control. He finished with two for 15 in his four overs, dismissing two of Joburg’s international stars in Devon Conway (9) and Moeen Ali (0). And Peters very much got them out – Conway couldn’t handle the heat from a short delivery and was caught behind, while Moeen was trapped lbw by a searing leg-stump yorker.

The batting line-up also has a fresh look with Will Smeed, Ashton Turner and Keagan Lion-Cachet all in the top six.

Regular captain Rilee Rossouw was unavailable on Tuesday because his wife had given birth in the morning, but Verreynne confirmed after the match that the change of captain will be in place until the end of the tournament.

“We wanted to freshen up the team with new guys and they’ve had an immediate impact. We’ve had five guys sitting on the side who are very hungry and we did really nicely in the field, just keeping it simple,” Verreynne said.

“I thought with both the ball and in the field we were exceptional and we were really ruthless, which is maybe what we have lacked up till now. We just kept putting pressure on the Super Kings and the way we played is very pleasing and important because we’ve spoken about getting momentum to take into the back stretch of the competition.”

The Pretoria Capitals are now just one point behind the fourth-placed Super Kings, with both franchises having two games remaining. The Joburgers host Paarl Royals and Durban Super Giants, while the Capitals play home and away against MI Cape Town, so it is going to be a tense finale to the round-robin stages.

Joburg Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming was upset by his team’s failure to exhibit much tenacity. After their poor batting display, they were scattergun with the ball and sloppy in the field, two catches going down. The most crucial was Marques Ackerman being missed on 0 by Lutho Sipamla at deep backward point when Pretoria were two down inside the first five overs. The left-hander went on to score 39 off 22 balls, which settled the contest in poised fashion.

“It was a really bad one, a poor performance. There’s been a bit of a trend this season that batting first seems a bit more challenging, but the players didn’t have the mindset to work their way out of a tough situation. We were sloppy with the bat, the ball and in the field, so 0/3 of our skills worked, which is a problem,” Fleming said.

“The Capitals were able to extract variable pace and bounce, but we contributed to our own demise, we should have posted 140 but we just gave up too easily. You need to adapt to conditions and get a score on the board, but the modern player doesn’t seem to have that toughness to find a way to do it. It’s mostly mental.”

With the Western Cape teams playing such inspired cricket at the moment, Fleming admitted that it will now take a miracle for the Joburg Super Kings to finish in the top two and earn themselves two chances of making the final.

“We’re probably out of the race for one and two, but there are three teams hunting hard for the other two playoff places. We have our last two games at home, where we are very comfortable. So that’s a positive, but we have to play better,” Fleming said.

The Pretoria Capitals, meanwhile, seem to have found some belated inspiration. The rousing fast bowling of Peters had much to do with that. The 25-year-old was born and schooled in Pretoria and represented the SA U19s in 2018. He played 28 matches for Northerns across all three formats, but for some reason left to play for Border in 2021.

Thankfully for a bowler of his potential, he has been playing for North-West in Division One for the last two seasons.

While Peters may not be known to many, Verreynne had a brief but memorable meeting with him before they became SA20 team-mates.

“I played against him in a T20 match for Western Province last season. The first ball I didn’t see and the second ball got me out. So I knew what he was about and obviously I’ve seen him a lot in training now. He’s a serious talent with the ability to bowl 150km/h-plus, and his ability to bowl at any stage of the innings impresses me. Plus his attitude and hunger is most pleasing,” Verreynne said.

The Joburg Super Kings just need to win one more game to book their place in the SA20 final after they threw everything at the deflated Paarl Royals and hammered them by nine wickets with 40 balls to spare in their Eliminator at the Wanderers on Wednesday evening.

Having just scraped into the playoffs with victory in their last round-robin game, the Super Kings will now face the Durban Super Giants in Qualifier 2 at the Wanderers on Thursday, the winner going on to play defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape in the final at Newlands on Saturday.

Before their almost complete victory over the Royals, Joburg’s best showing in the tournament had been in the previous game when they registered a rousing win in the final over against the selfsame Super Giants last weekend.

Wednesday was a night when just about everything went according to plan for the Super Kings, starting with winning the toss and sending Paarl in to bat first, which has generally been tougher this season at the Wanderers.

And then Sam Cook, making his SA20 debut because strike bowler Lizaad Williams picked up an injury, struck twice in his second over, removing Paarl’s two leading run-scorers going into the game, Jos Buttler (10) and Mitchell van Buuren (0).

Van Buuren’s dismissal was courtesy of a sensational catch by Imran Tahir, who showed that age is just a number by racing back from short fine-leg and diving to take a catch over his shoulder. At 44 years old, Tahir has been “poor in the field” this season, JSK coach Stephen Fleming admitted, but he took a second fantastic catch when he intercepted Dane Vilas’s sweep that was looking like being a low, flat six, at fine leg off Nandre Burger.

Burger also dismissed Jason Roy (24) and Wihan Lubbe (4), finally getting the wickets his excellent bowling this season has deserved.

While fast bowlers Cook, whose four for 24 in 3.5 overs were the best ever figures by an SA20 debutant, and Burger (4-0-26-3) shared most of the wickets, spinners Moeen Ali (4-0-26-1) and Tahir (4-0-33-2) were able to tie the batsmen down and strike, while seamer Dayyaan Galiem bowled two tidy overs for 11 runs.

From 43 for four, Vilas (21) and David Miller were able to double the total with their stand of 44 off 34 deliveries, and the Royals were relying on captain Miller for a big finish to give them a competitive score. But Miller was caught behind off a Tahir googly at the end of the 17^th over with the total on 126.

Eventually Paarl finished on 138, bowled out in 19 overs, setting them on track for their fifth successive defeat.

“We weren’t 100% with the ball, but we were on the right areas for long enough and we had a bit of luck,” a smiling Fleming said after the triumph. “It’s a very fine line, on certain days you can do everything right but it just doesn’t work.

“The word momentum is over-used, sometimes it’s just slightly different training or words beforehand that can turn things around, and we were nicely in the moment this evening.

“Imran has been poor in the field for us this season, and then he takes a couple of catches like that! That’s when you know it’s your day,” Fleming said.

Faced with a potentially tricky target if they lost early wickets, the Super Kings were on fire from the start of their chase.

In the briefing before their innings, the importance of a good start would have been emphasised, and once Leus du Plooy had lashed 68 off 43 balls, JSK were always going to make short work of the chase.

Du Plooy’s innings, laced with seven fours and two sixes, was a fine example of dominant strokeplay and clever shot options.

With Faf du Plessis giving perfect, sensible support at the other end, they raised their century partnership for the first wicket in the 10^th over, Du Plooy falling soon after, stumped off Tabraiz Shamsi.

But by then Du Plessis was giving the Royals bowlers a battering as well, and he finished with 55 not out off 34 deliveries.

When your best performance of the season comes at the start of the knockout rounds, your coach is going to be well-pleased, and Fleming was certainly chuffed.

“That was right up there as one of our most complete performances, and also with the status of the game. It’s a great time to have the sort of performance we aim for.

“The start of the chase was so good, it just killed the game, we polished off that target. It was a really good win,” Fleming said.

The Joburg Super Kings were bundled out in just 15.2 overs for 78 – the second-lowest total in SA20 history – as they were thrashed by the Sunrisers Eastern Cape at the Wanderers on Wednesday evening, coach Stephen Fleming once again expressing his disappointment over the pitch.

Sent in to bat, the Super Kings lost both Faf du Plessis and Reeza Hendricks to the outstanding Daniel Worrall (4-0-20-3) for ducks in the second over. Moeen Ali also made a duck and Leus du Plooy (18), Wayne Madsen (32 off 23) and new Kiwi recruit Doug Bracewell (12) were the only batsmen to reach double figures against an attack that was not necessarily inspired, but certainly very disciplined and controlled.

The Sunrisers then knocked off their target in just 11 overs to earn a bonus point win, Dawid Malan scoring 40 not out off 32 balls and Tom Abell an undefeated 26 off 20 deliveries, assuring the defending champions of a place in the qualifiers.

“I love this competition, it is outstanding. Short and intense, although that does make the travel tough, and the support is tremendous. But the pitches have dropped off a bit from last year. We are in the entertainment business, I don’t mind the ball dominating every now and then, but we have to make sure there is a balance,” Fleming said after the Super Kings’ third loss in four matches at home.

“Today in particular was not great for the product, which is a pity because this is a great place to play. We’re struggling to read the pitch and there is an advantage to bowling first. The ball sits up and creates problems.

“Each surface here we have struggled to understand. The pitch seems to be transforming, it was slowish last year but now it is somewhere in between that and the traditional Wanderers wicket that flies through.

“We bought tall fast bowlers in the auction and it’s been disappointing because the real character of this pitch is being lost. We need to pivot quickly, but today was one of those days we nicked everything, on both sides of the wicket. And then you see how many times we go past the bat and you just have to shake your head,” Fleming said.

The Joburg Super Kings are in the fourth and final qualification place on 13 points at the moment and have one match remaining – against the high-flying Durban Super Giants at the Wanderers on Saturday. With the Pretoria Capitals and MI Cape Town three and four points in arrears respectively, and playing each other twice before the end of the round-robin, JSK have to beat the top-of-the-log KwaZulu-Natalians on Saturday to have any chance of progressing.

“It’s thanks to the nature of this year’s tournament that we are still alive and the scenarios are right in front of us, but unfortunately our fate is out of our control. We will be doing lots of mental work over the next few days.

“Luck wasn’t with us today, but some people will say maybe we should have been more defensive, but then you can become too cautious. Sometimes you just have to bluff confidence and step forward. You can’t over-analyse days like this,” the highly-lauded former New Zealand captain said.

Madsen, Moeen and Donovan Ferreira (8) were all caught down the leg-side, the sort of thing that happens to a batting line-up low on confidence and perhaps wishing they didn’t have to play at home.