• Consistency key for award-winning Marco

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    Sunrisers Eastern Cape superstar Marco Jansen won’t have any more space on his mantelpiece before long.

    Jansen is collecting awards at the conclusion of almost every competition, with the all-rounder winning both the SA20 Player of the Season and Bowler of the Season for 2025 on Saturday evening at the Wanderers.

    The 24-year-old won the Rising Star Award last season and is the current CSA Men’s Player of the Year.

    “All my trophies are on my TV cabinet at the moment, but no, I’m just really pleased with the awards,” Jansen told SA20.

    “Yeah, obviously we didn’t win the final, but for me personally, I still feel really well about my game. I think the performances I gave [this season] were a lot more consistent.”

    Jansen is certainly fully deserving of both awards. The all-rounder was excellent with the ball throughout, topping the wicket-takers charts with 19 at an average of 18.42, while he also contributed 204 runs at a strike rate of 125.1.

    The satisfaction of producing these excellent results are even sweeter for Jansen after he missed virtually the entire international winter season to undergo a 12-month conditioning programme. ​

    It was designed to build Jansen’s strength and fitness for him to operate at peak performance during the latter part of the summer.

    “I am a bit tired, but physically I still feel good. I did have one or two niggles, but our physio helped me with that. But all in all, I still feel really strong,” Jansen said.

    “It means that all the hard work I’ve put in, that off-period I had, those three months, whatever work I did, helped and contributed to this.”

    Jansen’s heroics with bat and ball were not enough to drive the Sunrisers to a championship three-peat but watching the 2.06m fast bowler charge in with the new ball during the powerplay was certainly one of the highlights of the competition.

    “I’m really pleased with having struck a lot in the powerplay, which is my goal or which is my job. I felt I bowled well this season,” he said.

    “Obviously the new ball is probably the best chance to get a wicket because the ball is swinging, the ball is nipping, the wicket is fresh. The batters, they’re just getting in, so they have to play, they have to look at the ball, they have to see, they have to react.

    “I think mentality-wise, I try to take a wicket every single ball. And then depending on whether the ball swings or not, I just try and adapt from that.

    “If the ball nips, then I try to bowl a bit straighter. If the ball swings, I’ll try to bowl more full-stump lines, and then just take it from there.”

    2025 SA20 award winners

    Player of the Season: Marco Jansen (Sunrisers Eastern Cape)
    Batsman of the Season: Lhuan-dre Pretorius (Paarl Royals)
    Bowler of the Season: Marco Jansen (Sunrisers Eastern Cape)
    Rising Star: Dewald Brevis (MI Cape Town)
    Dispatch of the Season: Donovan Ferreira (Joburg Super Kings)
    Catch of the Season: Dewald Brevis (MI Cape Town)

    Photo: Sportzpics/Shaun Roy

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    Dylan Johnson