Ken Borland

Sunrisers Eastern Cape coach Adrian Birrell is ever-pragmatic and measured, and he did not need to ruminate long for the reasons behind his team’s 76-run defeat at the hands of MI Cape Town in the SA20 final at the Wanderers on Saturday evening: They were simply the better team.

MI Cape Town were just better on the night (and probably all season, to be fair) in all three departments as the two-time defending champions failed to pull off what would have been an incredible hat-trick of titles. To win a T20 competition three seasons in a row is incredibly rare; locally, only the Titans have managed it (2015/16-2017/18) and Jaffna Kings in Sri Lanka and Sialkot Stallions in Pakistan are believed to be the only other franchises to have pulled it off.

Everything went right for MI Cape Town as they won the toss and bucked the recent trend and elected to bat first at the Wanderers. Runs on the board in a final are worth more and Ryan Rickelton (33 off 15) and Rassie van der Dussen (23 off 25), the best opening pair in the competition, wasted no time in claiming the advantage. They hit an astonishing six sixes in the first five overs in a first-wicket stand of 51, and although Sunrisers fought back well to claim four wickets in the next six overs, MI Cape Town had important contributions from Connor Esterhuizen (39 off 26) and Dewald Brevis (38 off 18) which enabled them to post 181 for eight.

It was a good score on a Wanderers pitch on which the ball sometimes gripped and turned; the class new-ball bowling of Trent Boult and Kagiso Rabada soon turned it into a formidable score. While MI Cape Town had raced to 51 without loss in the first five overs, Sunrisers struggled to 25 for two.

From there it was always going to be an uphill task for the defending champions, and they were eventually bowled out for 105 in the 19^th over.

Left-armer Boult set the tone with two for nine in his four overs, while Rabada wrapped up the victory to claim four for 25. In between, spinners Rashid Khan (4-0-19-1) and George Linde (4-0-20-2) bowled brilliantly.

“Credit to MI Cape Town, they played a really good game of cricket,” Birrell said afterwards. “They have been the most consistent side and they deserve the trophy. I thought 180 was about par, but the ball swung a bit tonight and they have a formidable attack which was really good tonight.

“It’s very difficult to chase 180 when you get behind the game and they bowled very well. And they played a different brand to us with the bat – they hit 15 sixes and only eight fours, usually it’s the other way round. The ball carried well here and that hurt us,” Birrell said.

MI Cape Town captain Rashid Khan was delighted by the most dominant SA20 campaign yet. His team were able to amass the most log points (35) in the history of the competition and then won their qualifier by 39 runs and the final by 76.

“I’m definitely happy because last year and the year before we finished bottom, now we have won the final and scored the most points in the group stage, to win five matches with bonus points is unbelievable. Everyone contributed, we won as a team and did not depend on one or two guys,” Rashid said.

New Zealand star Boult, who claimed 11 wickets in the tournament and conceded just 6.94 runs-per-over, certainly did not mean it in any derogatory way when he said MI Cape Town had a very simple on-field approach and a harmonious changeroom that ensured a positive environment.

“We just tried to keep things very simple: bat first and put runs on the board and then unleash our experienced bowling attack. I could sense the unity when I walked into the changeroom on January 1 and we were able to keep things similar through the whole competition. It was a true collective effort.

“I’m very fortunate to play for such a great franchise as the Mumbai Indians group and this is my fourth trophy with them. We have very great owners and they provide a great environment to perform, while expecting us to do a good job,” Boult said.

If Saturday’s SA20 final at the Wanderers is like the wedding feast to celebrate the successful conclusion of the third edition of the tournament that has changed South African cricket, then Thursday night was a wonderful bachelor party for the Sunrisers Eastern Cape as they romped to an eight-wicket win over the Paarl Royals in Qualifier 2 at Centurion.

The comfortable victory, with four balls to spare, puts Sunrisers into their third successive final and the two-time champions will be taking on MI Cape Town in a mouthwatering final clash.

It was 23-year-old Jordan Hermann who took the Eastern Cape side to their target of 176 with his marvellous 69 not out off 48 balls. But it was another left-hander who set up the victory, Tony de Zorzi opening the batting and stroking a beautiful 78 off just 49 deliveries, with 11 fours and two sixes. His play through the off-side was particularly elegant and he reminded everyone what a serious player he is.

Kwena Maphaka snatched up the wicket of David Bedingham (9) for Paarl Royals in the fourth over, but De Zorzi and Hermann then feasted, adding 111 off 73 deliveries for the second wicket.

Jordan Hermann’s older brother Rubin was also involved in a wonderful second-wicket partnership for the Royals, adding 99 off 65 balls with Lhuan-dre Pretorius, whose time in the limelight will surely come.

Rubin Hermann was also unbeaten, scoring 81 not out off 53 deliveries to take Paarl to a competitive 175 for four in their 20 overs, after electing to bat first. Opener Pretorius batted with great maturity, scoring 59 off 41 balls, to show he is ready for bigger things.

They ensured that the Royals started well, while Hermann and Andile Phehlukwayo (22* off 11) provided the big finish they needed. But it was in the middle overs that they faltered, as the admirable Sunrisers attack gobbled up three wickets in four overs, Paarl slipping from 105 for one in the 13^th to 126 for four after 16 overs.

The key breakthroughs were by English paceman Craig Overton, who had Pretorius caught behind, and captain Aiden Markram, who trapped opposite number David Miller lbw, missing a sweep, for just 6. They both ended with excellent figures of one for 24 in four overs.

The Paarl Royals were the form team in the competition, being the first to qualify for the playoffs, but Sunrisers Eastern Cape have been able to supplant them with a trademark surge in the final week.

“The Sunrisers always seem to be slow starters, but the most important thing is that they catch up in the end,” Miller said after another playoffs disappointment for the Royals. “Once you develop a winning squad like they have, then there’s a lot of trust and they really back each other.

“They are clever and gutsy cricketers, they never say die and that goes a long way in T20. They give everything in the field, they have amazing bowlers, especially the three-metre guys with height and pace in these conditions, and the batsmen have stepped up at certain stages when needed,” Miller graciously said.

De Zorzi thanked Markram for his backing, but in truth the 27-year-old deserves credit for his tenacity in smashing down the door once it was left ajar.

“I’m really grateful for the chance and to Aiden for showing faith in me, even though it’s not really warranted in this format. I haven’t played that many T20 games and you need to play more to find your rhythm and blueprint. Sometimes you have doubts, but I am still relatively young and I need to keep believing. I was glad to do it tonight because it gives me hope and this is an unforgiving format,” De Zorzi said.

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.

Daryn Dupavillon called it “incredible” while the religious might even have said it was miraculous as Marques Ackerman’s last-ditch boundaries earned the Pretoria Capitals a bonus point win over the Sunrisers Eastern Cape on a pitch which had many batsmen praying for help in their SA20 match at Centurion on Tuesday.

Sunrisers needed all the help they could get as they lost the toss and were sent in to bat on a damp pitch, understandably so after all the rain that has fallen in Gauteng in the last month. Their confidence-lacking batting line-up did not help themselves either though, and they crashed to 26 for five.

It was only thanks to a determined but fiery 51 off 35 balls by Marco Jansen that they managed to post 113 all out, their second-lowest total ever and also the second-lowest at Centurion.

Will Jacks (27 off 23) gave Pretoria Capitals a confident start to their chase, but the loss of Kyle Verreynne (12) off the last ball of the powerplay saw them slip from 44 for one to 61 for four. Mindful of how they had messed up a run-a-ball chase in Kingsmead in their opening game, the home side went into crisis mode.

Liam Livingstone (14* off 14 balls) and Ackerman successfully completed their first job, which was to ensure victory was in the bag. But a crucial, and very attainable bonus point, seemed to have passed them by when they needed 32 runs off 18 balls for the bonus point.

They then went into attack mode but struggled to make much headway on the two-paced pitch against tight, determined bowling that still asked plenty of questions. They came to the 16^th over needing 15 from it for the bonus point.

Ackerman managed to swot Marco Jansen’s second delivery over long-on for a flat six, but two dot balls followed, meaning the left-hander needed to score nine off the last two balls for that crucial extra point.

First he flicked the left-arm quick off the stumps, behind square on the leg-side for four, before swinging the last ball clean-as-a-whistle over long-on for six. In just his second SA20 innings, and his first since 2023, Ackerman finished on a tenacious, highly impressive 39 not out off 30 balls.

“It was a tricky pitch, you couldn’t just walk in and start hitting, you had to spend some time getting the pace of the wicket. When we lost a few wickets, I was just thinking of us getting the win,” Dupavillon said after the victory by six wickets with 24 balls to spare.

“We played the situation badly in Durban, but Liam and Marques really did what was required today. They hit the ball on the ground initially and we were always ahead of the rate because of Will going hard at the front. But Marques was incredible at the end there.”

While SA20 matches at Centurion are usually a festival of runs, Tuesday was very different. At the start of the game, the ball was ‘sticking’ but there was still some steep bounce, as well as swing and a little bit of movement off the deck.

Dupavillon and new-ball partner Eathan Bosch used the conditions perfectly, with Dupavillion taking three for 32 and Bosch two for 18.

Bosch had Zak Crawley (1) caught at mid-off off the last delivery of the first over, unwisely trying to hit a back-of-a-length ball over the top. Dupavillon then struck with his second and third deliveries as David Bedingham (2) edged a nurdle outside off-stump and Aiden Markram jabbed his first ball to deep backward square-leg.

For a team that has lost their first two games, crashing to four for three was always going to be a very difficult hole to climb out of. Jansen’s excellent innings, featuring four fours and three sixes, meant they weren’t totally embarrassed, but Migael Pretorius (4-1-21-1), Jimmy Neesham (3.4-0-11-2) and Senuran Muthusamy (4-0-29-2) all provided fine support to the new-ball bowlers.

The back-to-back defending champions, having lost three matches in a row now, need to urgently arrest their slide otherwise they will be praying for a miracle of their own.

“We need to find our blueprint soon because we haven’t played well in our last three games. You need to make your own luck and we need to do the basics better. Fortunately there are still seven games to go and we know we are in for the long run.

“We haven’t started well before but have managed to find a way. But we are running out of time to make a play,” assistant coach Russell Domingo said.