Sunrisers Eastern Cape seal third SA20 title in four seasons with Newlands victory

It’s a third SA20 title in four seasons for Sunrisers Eastern Cape after snatching an incredible six-wicket victory over Pretoria Capitals at Newlands Cricket Ground after looking down and out halfway through their chase.

Sunrisers skipper Tristan Stubbs (63 off 41 deliveries) and Matthew Breetzke (68 off 49) rescued their side from 48 for four in the ninth over to chase down the Pretoria Capitals’ 158 with four balls to spare. They shared an unbeaten 114-run partnership.

At the close of the 16th over, the Sunrisers required 56 runs off 24 balls on a pitch that seemed to get worse with every passing over.

But the partnership between Breetzke and Stubbs blossomed as the pair smashed the 17th over of the innings for 14, the 18th for 21 and the 19th for 12.

They were the most productive overs of the innings for the Capitals. Nine runs were required off the final over, bowled by the part-time spin of Bryce Parsons. Stubbs smacked the first two deliveries deep into the Oaks Grass Embankment and ran off towards his team who met up with him on the outfield as celebrations commenced.

Brevis brilliance

The Capitals set 158 runs in their allotted overs, thanks almost solely to the efforts of Dewald Brevis (101 off 56 deliveries) who struck his maiden SA20 century.

It was an innings deserving of a title, but none of the other Capitals batters managed a meaningful score.

After seven balls into the Capitals’ innings, they were two wickets down and only one run on the board. But Brevis and Parson (30 off 20) steadied the wobbly ship.

Brevis was the aggressor. By the time Pretoria Capitals were on 58 after the seventh over, Brevis had scored 47 of those runs.

He clubbed seven sixes and eight fours in the knock, and was particularly brutal to the spin of James Coles and Chris Green, who were the most expensive bowlers for the winning side.

“The responsibility that he showed batting at four, he scored two fifties and a hundred in the last three games… He showed his maturity,” Pretoria Capitals captain Keshav Maharaj said after the match.

The six that took Brevis to his century, pulled over deep point boundary, was his 30th of the season — the most in the competition.

Despite the brilliant efforts of Brevis, the Capitals could manage only 158 runs in their 20 overs.

His side scored only three runs in the final 12 balls of their innings as everyone outside of Brevis in the Pretoria Capitals lineup struggled to lay bat to ball.

The 19th over of the innings was a double-wicket maiden bowled by Marco Jansen, who returned scarcely believable figures, conceding only 10 runs while taking three wickets in his four-over spell.

Captain Stubbs

The Capitals had stumbled and crawled their way to 55 for four at the halfway stage.

The wickets to fall were those of Quinton de Kock (18 off 15), Jonny Bairstow (zero off one), Jordan Hermann (three off six) and James Coles (one off five).

Stubbs and Breetzke took few risks when they came together with the score on 48 for four in the ninth over.

The pair scored 114 runs off 65 deliveries, despite their slow start to the chase.

Conversely to the Sunrisers Spinners, it was the spin of Pretoria Capitals that kept them in the game, with Maharaj and Roston Chase going at around six to the over.

Maharaj opted for the spin of Parsons to attempt to restrict Stubbs and Breetzke in the final over after his pace bowlers had travelled the distance.

It didn’t work out. Stubbs deposited the ball over the boundary rope to lead the side to their third title and his first as captain. DM