Marco Jansen in action for Sunrisers Eastern Cape. Picture: SA20
The defending champions, the Sunrisers Eastern Cape, wrapped up second spot in this season’s edition of the SA20 competition with an impressive victory over the third-placed team, the Paarl Royals in Paarl on Friday.
The victory was built on another strong batting performance, but on this occasion it was not Dawid Malan (2), Jordan Hermann (36), Tom Abell (46) or Aiden Markram (9) or Tristan Stubbs (22) who stood out, though their contributions were important, but Marco Jansen, the lower middle-order all-rounder.
The tall left-arm bowler, who’s had a quiet SA20 so far, with bat and ball, exploded into life in Paarl, smashing a stunning 71 not out off 31 balls, with four fours and six sixes, to take his side to 208 for four in 20 overs.
The best bowler for the Royals was Evan Jones, who’s found it hard to find a place in the team this season. He returned figures of two for 51 in his four, while the other wickets were picked up by Wihann Lubbe and Tabraiz Shamsi.
Though the Royals got off to a thrilling start in their chase of 209 for the victory, with Jason Roy smashing 32 off 23 and Jos Buttler 64 off 45, when they both departed it was always going to be a tough task reaching their target.
It didn’t help when David Miller was out for just 14 soon after Buttler was sent back to the change-room. And the wickets kept tumbling for the remainder of the innings, with no one else contributing anythign significant.
In the end, the home team came up well short of their target. They finished on 164/7 off their 20 overs, handing the Sunrisers a comfortable 44-run win. Liam Dawson, Beyers Swanepoel and Jansen picked up two wickets each, while Daniel Worrall got one.
In Saturday’s two games, MI Cape Town host the Pretoria Capitals (1.30pm) and Joburg Super Kings welcome Durban’s Super Giants (5.30pm).
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