Twice winners of the trophy, Sunrisers Eastern Cape finally broke their duck at the expense of a disappointing Durban’s Super Giants, gaining a bonus-point victory after they thrashed the home side by 58 runs in their Betway Super20 match at a packed Kingsmead in Durban on Friday night.
Having lost their first three matches, the Sunrisers needed to come good in Durban, and that they palpably did, inflicting DSG’s second successive home defeat as they shot out the home team for a pitiful 107 in 18.1 overs in reply to their total of 165 for five after they had won the toss and taken first strike.
Is this the turning point for Sunrisers Eastern Cape? 👀
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The DSG innings simply never got up a head of steam. When opener Bryce Parsons was unnecessarily run out at the end of the powerplay, the home team had only reached 40, 14 behind their opponents at the same stage.
And it just got worse from there.
The Sunrisers’ bowlers bowled far better as a collective unit than their opponents and their fielders were tigerish in the field.
Perhaps it was not surprising that the visitors played as if their lives depended on it, but overall DSG seemed to lack determination and grit, were slack in the field and poor with the bat, suffering two run-outs and giving away soft wickets at key moments.
Kane Williamson will not want to recall his dismissal, popping one tamely back to spinner Liam Dawson, while Heinrich Klaasen flicked a harmless Simon Harmer delivery straight to midwicket.
Only Wiaan Mulder, with a bright 22 that included two sixes, looked the part in a lacklustre batting effort.
Even Matthew Breetzke, who is usually sparky at the top of the order, seemed overly cautious, scoring his 21 in 26 balls.
The innings ended in disarray with DSG losing their last six wickets for 13 runs as the home team seemed to give up.
AMHAD THE TOP BOWLER FOR DSG
Earlier, only left-arm wrist-spinner Noor Ahmad shone for DSG with fine figures of 4-25.
Noor Ahmed's impact for Durban's Super Giants is undeniable 🤯
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It was not enough, however, to prevent Sunrisers from producing a challenging total.
England opener Zak Crawley and David Bedingham began well for the visitors, helped by a first over from left-arm spinner Parsons in which his first five balls were all full-tosses.
Naveen ul-Haq made the breakthrough in the fourth over, however, when Bedingham got a top-edge to a pull, enabling Noor to take a good catch at “45” running back.
Crawley was then joined by Somerset’s Thomas Abell and the pair added a workmanlike 48 in 38 balls for the second wicket without taking any chances before Crawley became Noor’s first victim as the left-arm wrist-spinner’s delivery ripped through his defences as he failed to get to the pitch of the ball that spun viciously through the gate.
Noor’s next ball was another beauty and Markram was trapped leg before after the not-out decision was reviewed.
It was Markram’s second consecutive golden duck.
Jordan Hermann prevented the hat-trick but was leg before shortly afterwards to the same bowler as the Afghan tweaker threatened to undermine the Sunrisers’ innings.
Between the eighth and 12 overs, only 29 runs were scored at the expense of three wickets.
But Abell was then joined by Marco Jansen and the pair added 53 in 37 balls to restore some momentum to the innings.
Still, it took until the 16th over before Jansen clipped Naveen for the first six of the innings.
Noor then dismissed Abell for a valuable 57 (39 balls, 5x4s) that had provided a strong plank in the innings before Jansen (36* in 26 balls) and Tristan Stubbs took the innings to its conclusion.
As it turned out that total was more than enough to see off their pallid opponents.
DURBAN'S SUPER GIANTS: MP Breetzke, B Parsons, KS Williamson, Q de Kock†, PWA Mulder, H Klaasen, JF Smith, CR Woakes, KA Maharaj*, Noor Ahmad, Naveen-ul-Haq
SUNRISERS EASTERN CAPE: DG Bedingham, Z Crawley, TB Abell, AK Markram*, T Stubbs†, J Hermann, M Jansen, LA Dawson, SR Harmer, OEG Baartman, RJ Gleeson