SA20: Delano Potgieter stars with bat and ball to help MI Cape Town down Sunrisers

They may have won the first two editions of the SA20 competition, but the Sunrisers Eastern Cape suffered a big loss in their opening game at home in the third instalment of the competition in Gqeberha on Thursday night.

The Sunrisers crashed to a 97-run defeat to MI Cape Town in the opening game of the 2025 competition, played in front of a sold-out crowd, who were left stunned by what unfolded at St George’s Park.

Potgieter grabs five wickets

There were two standout performances by MI Cape Town players, namely batter Dewald Brevis, who hit a swashbuckling 57 to help his team to 174/4 in their 20 overs, while all-rounder Delano Potgieter first scored a brisk 25 not out off 12 balls at the back end of his team’s innings before he bagged three wickets in one over to rip the heart out of the home team’s chase.

In his next over he picked up a fourth wicket to leave the Sunrisers on 59/8 after 12.2 overs. He would get his fifth wicket in his third over to end with five wickets for 10 runs in three overs.

In the end, the Sunrisers were all out for a paltry 77 in 15 overs.

None of the home team’s batters got going after New Zealander Trent Boult, with two wickets in two balls in his first over, and Azmatullah Omarzai made the initial breakthroughs early on.

George Linde also got in on the action to remove Tristan Stubbs (13), but then it turned into the Potgieter show.

In his first over, the 11th, he got rid of Beyers Swanepoel, David Bedingham and Aiden Markram. In his follow-up over he also removed Liam Dawson before sending Richard Gleeson’s wickets tumbling.

Earlier, Brevis was the main contributor of MI Cape Town getting to their score of 174/7.

The now 21-year-old, who seems to have been around for years already, hit 57 off 29 balls, which included two fours and six sixes. His 50 came off 23 balls.

There would have been some nerves in the dressing room when he was dismissed in the 15th over and with MI Cape Town’s score on 124/4, but some big hitting late on by Linde (23 not out off 17) and especially Potgieter (25 not out off 12) got the visitors to a very challenging 174. Twenty-three runs came in the final over of the innings.

There were also good contributions from Rassie van der Dussen (16), Connor Esterhuizen (22) and Colin Ingram (22) after Reeza Hendricks was sent back to the change room for a duck in the first over.

The wickets were shared between Marco Jansen, Gleeson, Swanepoel, Dawson and Simon Harmer.