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Sunrisers thrash Super Giants to clinch SA20 title

cricket10 February 2024 20:28| © MWP
By:Ross Roche
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A terrific all-round performance from the Sunrisers Eastern Cape saw them crush Durban’s Super Giants by 89-runs to clinch their second straight SA20 title at Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday night.

The Sunrisers did it the hard way in last year’s first edition, sneaking into the playoffs and then going onto win, but this year were much more ruthless as they finished top of the log, won the first qualifier and then produced a top performance in the final to dominate the tournament.

In the final their batters did the work up front, scoring 203/4 in their 20 overs with Tristan Stubbs and Tom Abell striking half centuries, but it was their brilliant bowling department that followed that up with another superb effort to blow them away.

Marco Jansen, 5/30, Daniel Worrall, 2/15, and Ottneil Baartman 2/17 were again the stars of the piece as they rounded out a fantastic tournament for the bowling department.

Jansen finishes as the top wicket taker in the competition with 20 scalps, Baartman second with 18 and Worrall third with 17 to show just how big a role they played in their teams success.

The Super Giants chase got off to a disastrous start as Worrall had Quinton de Kock (3) playing on in the third over, while Jansen had Jon Jon Smuts (1) and Bhanuka Rajapaksa, for a duck, both caught by Patrick Kruger in the fourth, leaving them in deep trouble on 7/3.

Wiaan Mulder, 38 off 22 balls (3x4, 2x6) and Matthew Breetzke (18) tried to rebuild with a 56-run fourth wicket stand, but the last ball of the 10th over saw Mulder caught stunningly on the long-off boundary by Jansen off Simon Harmer, and Breetzke followed first ball of the next, bowled by Baartman as they slipped to 63/5.

Five balls later Baartman had arguably the biggest wicket of the game, Heinrich Klaasen trapped LBW for a first ball duck, which effectively ended the contest with them on 69/6.

Dwaine Pretorius, 28 off 17 (3x4, 1x6), and Junior Dala 15 off nine (1x4, 1x6) struck a few late lusty blows, but Jansen cleaned up three of the last four wickets to seal the huge win as they fell to 115 all out.

In the Sunrisers innings Stubbs smashed an unbeaten 56 off 30 balls with four fours and three sixes and Abell crunched 55 off 34 (8x4, 2x6).

Captain Aiden Markram and opener Jordan Hermann also contributed positively, both scoring 42 off 26 balls, and both shared in 90-run partnerships with the two half centurions.

Markram struck three fours and two sixes as he shared in an unbeaten 98-run fourth wicket stand with Stubbs, which saw them finish powerfully, hammering 58 runs off the last four overs.

At the start of play the Sunrisers won the toss and chose to bat, but got off to a tough start as Dawid Malan (6) was trapped LBW by Reece Topley in the second over with the score 15/1.

But that brought Abell in to join Hermann and they set about a positive 90-run second wicket partnership.

Abell however lived a charmed life early on as he was dropped on seven by a backpedalling Naveen-ul-Haq off Topley in the fourth over, and in the next over bowled by Naveen he looked to have been caught, but the third umpire decided the ball had bounced just before the fielder as he survived.

This allowed Abell to go big in the final over of the powerplay as two fours and a six off the bowling of Mulder saw them on 55/1 at the end of it.

Both batters were settled and started to play shots heading to the halfway stage as 14 came off Dala’s eighth, 12 off Keshav Maharaj’s ninth and 11 off the 10th from Pretorius which took them to 101/1.

The Super Giants however fought back with a terrific 11th over from Maharaj as he had Hermann caught at long-on, before bowling Abell reducing the Sunrisers to 106/3.

This brought Markram and Stubbs together and they started off slowly as they initially steadied the ship, taking their side to 145/3 after 16 overs.

Having set the platform the two batters then unleashed in the final four overs, starting with a four and a six from Markram off Naveen saw 13 off the 17th.

A six over deep midwicket and a four from Markram and a sweet slog scoop from Stubbs off Dala’s 18th saw 20 off it, while a six over deep midwicket off the first and last ball of Topley’s 19th added another 16 to the score.

A decent last over from Naveen saw just nine off it, but Stubbs brought up his half century with a four over mid-off and they brought the 200 up, giving their bowlers a good score to defend.

SUNRISERS EASTERN CAPE: Jordan Hermann, Dawid Malan, Tom Abell, Aiden Markram (capt), Tristan Stubbs (wk), Patrick Kruger, Liam Dawson, Marco Jansen, Simon Harmer, Ottniel Baartman, Daniel Worrall

DURBAN SUPER GIANTS: Quinton de Kock (wk), Matthew Breetzke, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Heinrich Klaasen, Dwaine Pretorius, Jon-Jon Smuts, Wiaan Mulder, Keshav Maharaj (capt), Reece Topley, Junior Dala, Neveen-ul-Haq

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