A shimmering century and a masterclass in T20 batting from Dewald Brevis was outdone by Tristan Stubbs as the Sunrisers Eastern Cape captain led his team to a dramatic, chaotic and glorious six-wicket victory against the Pretoria Capitals in the final of the SA20 at Newlands in Cape Town on Sunday afternoon.
Brevis let the Capitals to a respectable total of 158 for seven, but his nerve, and verve, were matched by Stubbs as he led SEC to a third title in four tournaments when the match seemed to have turned against them.
Sunrisers crashed to 48 for four in their run-chase and required almost 15 runs per over from the final four, but, with a couple of fortunate breaks and some brilliance from Stubbs and Matthew Breetzke, they clambered and bashed their way to victory at 162 for four with four balls to spare.
Breetzke cast off his recent run of poor form with a rumbustious and calculated 68* from 49 balls, while Stubbs may have played his best innings in the format with 63* from 41 balls (2x4, 4x6) as he clinically guided his team to victory. Nine runs were required from the final over from the unfortunate Bryce Parsons and Stubbs pulled and swept the first two balls for six to make the victory look straightforward. It wasn’t.
BRILLIANT BREVIS
Earlier, 22-year-old Brevis came to the crease at 1-2 after just seven balls of the innings and fully justified the eye-watering R16.5 million the Capitals paid for him at the player auction with an innings of calm savagery in which he selected his ‘targets’, and hammered them, while maturely respecting the ‘threats’.
Left-arm spinner James Coles was taken for 20 in his first over with a pair of fours and sixes, while off-spinner Chris Green’s first ball was launched high over mid-wicket. Brevis drove Coles (2-0-31-0) for another six over point in his second over, possibly the most dazzling shot of the innings.
He reached 50 from just 26 balls and added 96 with Parsons (30 from 30 balls), who deserved the highest praise for recognising the importance of his supporting role and sticking to it while Brevis rebuilt the innings using dynamite.
The innings began disastrously with Connor Esterhuizen (0) edging the fourth ball from Marco Jansen to Coles at slip, and West Indies’ captain, Shai Hope (1), chipped the first ball from Lutho Sipamla to Jonny Bairstow at extra cover. But it merely signalled the start of the Brevis show.
Parsons was run out by a powerful throw from Jordan Hermann and quick glovework from Quinton de Kock while Englishman Jordan Cox (3) was inadvertently run out by Coles at the non-striker’s end when he deflected a Brevis straight drive onto the stumps.
Capitals’ player of the tournament, Sherfane Rutherford, included two sixes in his 17 from 11 balls and was then dropped by Jordan Hermann at fine leg hooking an Anrich Nortje short ball to fine leg but cut another one just two deliveries later to Sipamla at third man.
But still Brevis forged on, driving and cutting at will before a flat-batted pull shot against Sipamla brought him a seventh six and a century from just 53 balls, which also included eight fours.
It ended just three balls later when an attempted reverse-lap against the brilliant Jansen (4-1-10-3) looped tamely into the gloves of de Kock, but he will remember the standing ovation he received for a few years to come.
Like Jansen, Nortje was outstanding with 4-0-19-1 and his concession of just three runs in the final over of the innings proved decisive. As always, the batsmen caught the attention and will claim the headlines. But while spectators salivated over the Brevis innings, they may have missed the two fast bowlers conceding just 29 runs in eight overs while the Capitals gathered 129 from the other 12 overs. It was a result-turning contribution.
The Sunrisers were champions in the first two editions of the tournament, beating the Capitals in the first final before losing in the third final last year to MI Cape Town. As champions for the third time in the first four years of the tournament, it may be well over a decade – or more – until their record as serial winners is challenged.
PRETORIA CAPITALS: Connor Esterhuizen, Shai Hope (wkt), Jordan Cox, Bryce Parsons, Dewald Brevis, Sherfane Rutherford, Roston Chase, Keshav Maharaj (captain), Lizaad Williams, Lungi Ngidi, Gideon Peters.
SUNRISERS EASTERN CAPE: Jonny Bairstow, Quinton de Kock (wkt), Matthew Breetzke, Jordan Hermann, Tristan Stubbs (captain), Marco Jansen, James Coles, Chris Green, Senuran Muthusamy, Anrich Nortje, Lutho Sipamla