Sunrisers Eastern Cape became the champion of the very first edition of the SA20 League on Sunday, February 12. They defeated Pretoria Capitals by 4 wickets in the final match, which was played at The Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg. They made it to the semifinals because of a good Net run rate in the season. Surprisingly, they were beaten by the Capitals twice in the league stage but took them down in the final.
Talking about the match, Sunrisers won the toss and opted to bowl first. Pretoria’s opener Kusal Mendis was looking good but got out in the 4th over of the first innings. On the very next ball, Phil Salt also departed after scoring just 8 runs. Rilee Rossouw continued to go after the bowlers, but he was nipped out by Sisanda Magala.
The Capitals couldn’t gather any momentum after the top-order failure and were bundled out for just 135 runs after losing all their 10 wickets. Roelof van der Merwe was the star bowler for the Eastern Cape as he picked up 4 wickets while conceding only 31 runs in his 4 overs quota. He bowled a couple of overs in the powerplay and dismissed Salt. He came again to bowl in the middle overs to dismiss Theunis de Bruyn. The 38-year-old got two more wickets in the 18th over he bowled.
Aiden Markram’s all-round performance in the final
Chasing the target, Sunrisers had a bad start as they lost their opener Temba Bavuma on just 11 runs. However, Adam Rossington had some different things in mind and played a brilliant knock of 57 runs off just 30 balls, which included 4 fours and 5 sixes. Jordan Hermann departed in the 7th over after scoring 22 runs, which included 5 fours.
Sunrisers’ Captain Aiden Markram, who won the player of the series award, played a helpful knock of 26 runs. Anrich Nortje and Adil Rashid bowled beautifully, but they just didn’t have enough runs on the board to defend.
Markram talked about their journey in the post-match presentation. “We were in a spot of bother (in the semis), and to come through for the team. It made me really happy. Overall very happy with how it went (with the ball) and grateful for this award. They’ve been by my side all the way (family),” he said.
Here’s how fans reacted:
Temba Bavuma is the reason. He has really some luck
— dinesh dinu (@dinesh_offl_06) February 12, 2023
Expecting markram to carry drinks just like warner
— Kaarthi 🇮🇳❤🇷🇺,🇮🇱,🇦🇷 (@Kaarthicherry) February 12, 2023
Even temba bavuma has a league trophy and then there is king 👑 🤣🤣
— hm (@hm95090172) February 12, 2023
Sabse weak team kon bol raha tha 😂🤣
— Md Meraj (@meraj15527914) February 12, 2023
Happy for Kavya Maran ❤️🤌 pic.twitter.com/SrIr8dzHfj
— Arpit Khare (@ak_shoots) February 12, 2023
SRH Markram ko hii Captain bnaygi abb
— Samrat Yadav (@sammyahir_07) February 12, 2023
— Aman kumar (@Amankumar291104) February 12, 2023
Finally she can smile now 😉🥰 pic.twitter.com/GUEfTcbkOT
— Prasun Jha (@jprasun21) February 12, 2023
