MI Cape Town stay alive with gritty win over Sunrisers Eastern Cape

MI Cape Town revived their SA20 playoff chances with a three-wicket victory over Sunrisers Eastern Cape at Newlands on Friday evening.

The defending champions collected four valuable points to move to 14 points, with their all-important final round-robin fixture against Sunrisers at St George’s Park on Sunday remaining.



MI Cape Town, however, missed out on the bonus point, which resulted in Pretoria Capitals (20 points) joining Sunrisers (24 points) and Paarl Royals (24 points) as the third team to advance to the playoffs.

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The home team were spurred on by a fifth successive sold-out Newlands crowd from the moment Trent Boult had the in-form Quinton de Kock caught behind off the very first ball of the innings.

MI Cape Town maintained the pressure throughout, with Boult rediscovering his form with figures of 3/28 before Corbin Bosch closed out the innings with 4/34.

All the Sunrisers batters struggled to adapt to the two-paced Newlands surface, with only Marco Jansen striking the ball with any freedom. The lanky all-rounder struck four sixes and three boundaries in his 23-ball 48, and along with a sedate 28 off 27 balls from James Coles, helped Sunrisers post 139/9 in their allotted 20 overs.

Jansen carried his batting form into the MI Cape Town innings, with the left-armer removing both Rassie van der Dussen and the in-form Ryan Rickelton in the Powerplay to provide Sunrisers with the start they would have been hoping for.

But Reeza Hendricks (41 off 43 balls) dug his heels in to play the anchor role, ensuring that despite MI Cape Town continuing to lose wickets, they edged closer to the required total.

All-rounder George Linde struck a breezy 31 off 18 balls, and new import Kieron Pollard contributed 20 off 14, though Sunrisers remained in the contest.

It became tricky towards the end when Hendricks was dismissed off the final ball of the penultimate over, caught at deep cover off Anrich Nortje, leaving MI Cape Town needing four runs off the final over.

For MI Cape Town and the Newlands faithful, Sunrisers all-rounder Senuran Muthusamy (2/25) overstepped to offer Bosch a free hit, allowing the champions to close out the game and stay alive in the competition.

Brief ScoresSunrisers Eastern Cape: 139 for 9 in 20 overs (Marco Jansen 42;Corbin Bosch 4/34, Trent Boult 3/28)
MI Cape Town: 140 for 7 in 19.2 overs (Reeza Hendricks 41, George Linde 31; Marco Jansen 2/23, Senuram Muthusamy 2/25)


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