The Sunrisers Eastern Cape beat the Joburg Super Kings by 32 runs in the SA20 eliminator playoff in Centurion on Tuesday.
The back-to-back champions will now meet the Paarl Royals in the second qualifier playoff at the same venue on Thursday.
Captain Aiden Markram’s love affair with the Pretoria ground continued with his 62* off 40 balls (five fours, two sixes) setting up the Sunrisers’ 184-6.
The Super Kings’ run chase stuttered throughout as they slipped to 152-7 in their 20 overs.
The eliminator was virtually decided in two separate overs of each innings.
The Sunrisers’ innings was delicately poised on 149-5 with 12 balls remaining when Markram and Marco Jansen (23* off 12 balls) bashed 29 runs off Lutho Sipamla’s penultimate over.
Sipamla conceded three sixes, two fours and delivered a no-ball to finish with the most expensive figures of 0-72 in SA20 history.
HIGHLIGHTS: Sunrisers Eastern Cape vs Joburg Super Kings (SA20)
In contrast, the Super Kings were on track at 91-3 after 12 overs requiring 94 from 48 balls with set batsmen Jonny Bairstow and Wihan Lubbe at the crease.
Markram rolled the dice and opted to bowl out seamer Craig Overton. The decision reaped the desired rewards with Overton sending down a miraculous double-wicket maiden over by dismissing both Lubbe and Moeen Ali as the Super Kings slumped to 91-5.
The Super Kings’ last remaining hope was Bairstow and the Englishman seemed ready for the challenge when he showed great innovation to take two fours and a six off Liam Dawson.
But the left-arm spinner held his nerve to clean bowl his compatriot when Bairstow (37 off 17 balls) attempted another reverse-sweep.
There was no way back for the Super Kings after Bairstow’s dismissal as they were left to contemplate a third playoff defeat in a row.
“Lot of credit to the boys. We haven’t put a complete game of cricket throughout and tonight was the closest we got,” said Markram.
“The bowlers were brilliant, the ball came on even better under lights so lot of credit to our guys. We saw the odd one react differently and that’s why we wanted to wait before using the spinners. It is all about execution on a surface like this.
“It was a tricky one to pace our innings, but we hit a phase where [Tristan] Stubbs and I got into the groove, and then Marco chipped in with a valuable knock.”
Photo: Shaun Roy/Sportzpics
