The Sunrisers Eastern Cape raised the roof at St George’s Park on Friday with a fourth consecutive victory that powered them into second place on the SA20 table.
The back-to-back defending champions are up to 19 points, just one below the Paarl Royals, who have played one game less.
The 14-run victory over the Joburg Super Kings was hard earned, with the Sunrisers once again relying on their captain Aiden Markram and their most senior bowler Marco Jansen.
Markram held his team’s innings together with a high-quality 43 from 29 balls, while Tristan Stubbs also enjoyed a welcome return to form with 35* off 22 balls.
Opener David Bedingham also contributed a solid 37 that pushed the Sunrisers up to a highly-competitive 165-4.
“They have a strong batting lineup,” said JSK captain Faf du Plessis. “It was there and thereabouts [with regards to a par score] – 160 felt like a good score. They bowled really well.
“They bowled some tight overs, put pressure back on us. They are very successful at home.”
HIGHLIGHTS: Sunrisers Eastern Cape vs Joburg Super Kings (SA20)
The Sunrisers’ bowling attack has proved the difference over the last four matches and so they showed yet again on another rousing night in Gqeberha.
And it’s Jansen who leads the way with the new ball in the powerplay. Despite having Du Plessis (27 off 18 balls) dropped at slip by Simon Harmer, Jansen responded two balls later to dismiss the JSK skipper in exactly the same fashion.
Harmer made amends by holding on to the chance the second time around.
It was, in fact, good captaincy from Markram who gave Jansen a third over in the powerplay in the hope of breaking a promising opening partnership between Du Plessis and Devon Conway.
The SA-born New Zealand batsman laid down the anchor for the remainder of the JSK innings with 43 off 40 balls, but did not have sufficient support at the other end for the visitors to haul in the target.
This was due to sustained pressure from the Sunrisers bowling attack with Richard Gleeson (2-37), Ottneil Baartman (2-32), Liam Dawson (1-10) and Markram (1-21) all chipping in to maintain the pressure on the Super Kings.
“They [bowling unit] are clear in their plans, have played a lot of T20 cricket,” Markram said. “They assess conditions, come up with the plan and then it comes down to execution.
“They have been clutch for us. Even tonight, the game was in the balance, they came up with plans and executed. More often than not, it is the execution by them.”
Photo: Ron Gaunt/Sportzpics
