Van der Merwe, Rossington guide Sunrisers Eastern Cape to SA20 title

The Sunrisers Eastern Cape were crowned the champions of the inaugural edition of SA20 as Aiden Markram’s side beat the Pretoria Capitals in Sunday’s final at the Wanderers in Johannesburg. Roelof van der Merwe’s dazzling 4 for 31 restricted the Capitals to 135 in the first innings before Adam Rossington’s blazing 57 off 35 balls powered the Sunrisers home in the chase with 22 balls to spare.

Aiden Markram won the toss and opted to bowl in the rescheduled final, which was pushed to the reserved day due to a wet outfield on Saturday. The Capitals got off to a solid start with openers Kusal Mendis and Phil Salt cracking 16 runs in the opening over. The Englishman was caught in the deep off the second ball of the match, but Sisada Magala had overstepped, giving the opener a life.

However, the Sunrisers pulled things back after an expensive start, with both openers departing inside the powerplay. Kusal Mendis skied one into the hands of mid-off, while Roelof van der Merwe cleaned up Phil Salt for eight. Rilee Rossouw smashed his first three deliveries against van der Merwe for boundaries but couldn’t convert his strong start.

The left-hander fell to Magala in the seventh over and was followed back to the pavilion by Theunis de Bruyn in the next over, leaving the Capitals in trouble at 66 for four. Jimmy Neesham and Colin Ingram looked to rebuild the innings after the flurry of wickets to set up a big finish, but the Sunrisers spinners ran rampant through the middle to dent the Capitals’ hopes. The skipper Aiden Markram dismissed Ingram with a peach that clipped the top of the off stump, while van der Merwe dismissed Eathan Bosch and Migael Pretorius off consecutive balls.

The Capitals lost their final five wickets for just 22 runs, slipping to a below-par score of 135 all-out in 19.3 overs. in reply, the Sunrisers lost Temba Bavuma in the second over, but Jordan Hermann and Adam Rossington ensured that the Men in Orange made the most of the powerplay and field restrictions. The opener smashed five boundaries and 26 runs in the sixth over to race away to a 20-ball half-century and take Eastern Cape to 76 in the powerplay.

Adil Rashid broke the 67-run stand with the wicket of Jordan Hermann in the seventh over, while Nortje bounced out Rossington for 57. However, despite some late wobbles, the Sunrisers stayed on course for victory. Aiden Markram chipped in with a captain’s knock of 26, and Marco Jansen finished things off with a six to give Sunrisers Eastern Cape the inaugural SA20 title.