Stubbs, Jansen steer SEC to nervy win against Royals

Tristan Stubbs showed the other side of his game as he steered Sunrisers Eastern Cape to a hard-fought five-wicket victory with 10 balls to spare over the Paarl Royals on a tricky Boland Park pitch, hitting just one six in another exciting SA20 match on Thursday night.

Chasing a modest target of 128, the Sunrisers found themselves in a heap of trouble as left-armer Bjorn Fortuin, proving that there are other quality spinners in the country apart from Maharaj and Shamsi, took three wickets in the 13^th over. Fortuin (4-1-20-3) narrowly missed out on a hat-trick as Marco Jansen was given out lbw, but the review showed the ball was missing leg-stump.

After Fortuin’s incredible over and the maiden he bowled in the 15^th over, Sunrisers were 97/5, needing 31 off the last 30 balls on a dry pitch that was slow and made strokeplay very difficult.

Stubbs composure

But Stubbs showed admirable composure as he scored 18 not out off 12 balls, including a slap over long-on for six off Evan Jones in the 18^th over, meaning just seven runs were needed off the last two overs. Marco Jansen once again showed his tremendous promise with the bat as he then hit Codi Yusuf for a four and six off the first two balls of the penultimate over to seal the victory.

Read more: Stubbs & Fuller do the business as Sunrisers beat MI Cape Town

The Eastern Cape side seemed to be cruising to a comfortable victory when opener Jordan Hermann, playing his first SA20 match after coming back from injury, scored 43 off 39 balls and added 57 for the third wicket with Aiden Markram (23), taking the visitors to 92/2 after 12 overs.

But Fortuin then bowled Markram, trying to cut an arm-ball, and then three balls later had Hermann caught at short third-man. Jordan Cox was then bowled first ball as he chopped on another quicker delivery, and Jansen narrowly avoided becoming the hat-trick victim. The young all-rounder then again saw Sunrisers home with 21 not out off 22 balls.

Read more: Humble Jansen plays down extraordinary SA20 innings

The Paarl Royals really struggled to get going in their innings and, apart from Wihan Lubbe’s 28 off 21 deliveries, the only other real point of interest was Corbin Bosch coming in No.3 but using up 29 balls for his 20.

Fortuin (14*) and Yusuf (12*) added 31 for the seventh wicket to boost the total to 127/7.

Spinners Markram and Roelof van der Merwe both took 2/21 in their four overs to lead the Sunrisers bowling, while seamers Sisanda Magala (4-0-15-1) and Brydon Carse (4-0-29-2) were also excellent.