A superb bowling display, led by Lutho Sipamla and Hardus Viljoen, was backed up by a top batting effort from Devon Conway to lead the the Joburg Super Kings to an impressive nine wicket bonus point win over the Sunrisers Eastern Cape in their Betway SA20 match at DP World Wanderers on Sunday.
After the Sunrisers won the toss and chose to bat, Sipamla, 3/13 in three overs, and Viljoen, 4/24 in four, laid waste to the visitors batting order, restricting them to 118 all out in their 20 overs.
Conway then took centre stage crunching three sixes and 11 fours on his way to a fantastic unbeaten 76 off 56 balls to lead his side home with a whopping 36 balls to spare.
The Super Kings chase began sedately, with just 17 off the first four overs, while Faf du Plessis (15) was dropped on one in the fourth over bowled by Richard Gleeson.
Conway tucked into a couple of boundaries, followed by Du Plessis with a few of his own, before he skied Beyers Swanepoel to David Bedingham in the deep leaving them on 34/1 at the end of the powerplay.
But that was as good as it got for the visitors as Wihan Lubbe, 25no off 17 (3x4; 1x6), came in and played the perfect supporting role, feeding Conway the strike, while also smashing any bad balls that came his way, as they shared in an unbeaten 85-run partnership.
They reached the halfway mark very well placed on 77/1, and then stepped on the gas as Conway brought up his half century, while 42 runs came off the next four overs to power them home.
In the first innings the Sunrisers suffered two dreadful collapses, that consigned them to an extremely poor score, as they lost their first four wickets for 17 runs at the top of the order, and last five wickets for just three runs at the back end.
Zak Crawley’s dismal SA20 continued as he fell for a first ball duck, offering no foot movement while aiming a booming drive at Sipamla’s opening delivery and getting a thick edge to Donovan Ferreira at first slip.
He was followed at the end of the over by Tom Abell who chopped onto his own stumps to leave the Sunrisers 0/2 after the first over.
Jordan Hermann edged Sipamla to wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow and Aiden Markram edged his first ball from Viljoen onto his own stumps, incredibly seeing the first four batsmen all fall without scoring a single run, leaving them on 17/4 after 3.5 overs.
Tristan Stubbs (37) was pinned on the pad first ball but given not out, with the Super Kings referring only for umpires call to save the batter.
That allowed Bedingham, 48 off 40 balls (7x4), who had witnessed the carnage from the other end, to start a fightback along with Stubbs, and by the end of the powerplay he was on 30, while the score was 32/4.
They managed to get their side past 50 and extend their partnership to 57 runs, when Bedingham tried to reach his half century in style, but sent the ball from Imran Tahir straight down Du Plessis’ throat at long off, leaving them on 74/5.
Stubbs and new man Marco Jansen, 22 off 18 (3x4), tried to set a platform for a late innings charge with a 51-run sixth wicket stand, but just as they were looking to unleash everything fell apart.
Jansen misread a slower ball from Matheesha Pathirana and popped an easy catch to Du Plessis at mid off, followed by Stubbs being run out after new batter Liam Dawson (1) sent him back, off successive balls as they fell to 115/7.
Viljoen’s 19th over then cleaned up the tail as he pinned Dawson LBW, Swanepoel was unbelievably caught by Ferreira one handed running around the boundary, and Ottneil Baartman (1) was bowled.
JOBURG SUPER KINGS: Devon Conway, Faf du Plessis (capt), Wihan Lubbe, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Moeen Ali, Donovan Ferreira, Evan Jones, Hardus Viljoen, Imran Tahir, Lutho Sipamla, Matheesha Pathirana
SUNRISERS EASTERN CAPE: Zak Crawley, David Bedingham, Tom Abell, Jordan Hermann, Aiden Markram (capt), Tristan Stubbs (wk), Marco Jansen, Liam Dawson, Beyers Swanepoel, Ottneil Baartman, Richard Gleeson