SA20 Season 4 playoffs: What makes Sunrisers Eastern Cape this good?

TimesofIndia.com in Durban: Sunrisers Eastern Cape (SEC) have made the SA20 playoffs for four seasons running and were champions in the first two. In the third season, they finished runners-up and their fate for the fourth, the ongoing tournament, remains to be determined.

Like the second season of the SA20, SEC qualified for the playoffs by topping the standings — alongside Pretoria Capitals, Paarl Royals and Joburg Super Kings. As per the format, Sunrisers will face Pretoria Capitals in the first qualifier at Kingsmead on Wednesday (January 21). If they win that match, they advance straight to the final at Newlands on January 25. If they lose, they get another chance via the second qualifier route.





SEC were the first team to qualify for the knockouts with five wins. Tristan Stubbs-led team’s dominance was evident in the four bonus points they collected, the most in the six-team competition.

When asked, former South Africa players JP Duminy and Mark Boucher credited coach Adrian "Adi" Birrell for the success of the franchise. The former South Africa assistant coach has held the job for all four seasons and the results speak for themselves.

"He's an advocate to create a great environment where people feel that they can come in and be themselves and really just focus on being their best version through their performances," said JP Duminy in an interaction facilitated by the SA20.

Duminy spoke highly of the SEC's seam bowling attack and the leadership that the franchise has had whether it was Aiden Markram earlier or Tristan Stubbs now.

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"Everything rises and falls on leadership most times and when you have a great coach creating a great environment and a captain that is leading through performance, people want to follow that sort of leadership style," said Duminy.

Born and raised in Makhanda, Birrell understands the Eastern Cape province and the expectations of the boisterous brass band that creates plenty of noise at St George's Park better than most people.

The 65-year-old played his school and first class cricket for Eastern Province, before turning to coaching. Locally he has overseen the Titans and Warriors before shifting focus to Ireland, South Africa, Hampshire and now SEC.

Ex-South Africa wicketkeeper-batter Boucher, who was also born in the Eastern Cape, said Birrell's 'fantastic' approach to the squad reflects the people of the province.

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"I think the team culture is fantastic and it's led very well by Adrian Birrell. He's a Eastern Cape boy. The Eastern Cape people, they're very homely people. They love their home ground. They're very humble as well. And I know for a fact that Birrell tried to drive that into his players. We've seen video clips of him walking into a changing room and saying to all the players, 'you must get to learn every person's name around the ground, from your backroom staff, the people who come in and collect the plates.' There's a lot of respect for the people around," stated Boucher.

"So it doesn't surprise me that they've been like that. You always see them as probably the best fielding side in the team. And fielding is largely about attitude. So they've all got great attitudes. They understand what their roles are. And they go out there and they just want to win. And they win in a gracious way as well. They keep their feet on the ground. And I think that's largely driven by Adrian," continued Boucher.

Birrell's philosophy can be understood through his remarks after SEC's loss to MI Cape Town last week. Despite having qualified already, Birrell admitted to being "hurt" by the three-wicket defeat. "You can look at it philosophically: it’s difficult to win four or five games in a row to win the trophy, so maybe a loss isn't the worst thing,” he had said.

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When posed the ultimate question -- what makes them so successful -- Birrell, like all good coaches, opted to credit the team.

“We’ve had good teams. We've got another good team this year, and we’ve played a good style of cricket," he claimed.

“We’ve produced some good wins and when we’ve lost we’ve only just lost. We’ll take confidence into the back end of the tournament,” he continued.

Backed by strong performances from Quinton de Kock (328 runs), Jordan Hermann (212 runs), Jonny Bairstow (205 runs), Anrich Nortje (14 wickets), Adam Milne (11 wickets) and Marco Jansen (10 wickets), SEC enter the playoffs as the two-time champions, current season's table-toppers, and with a spring in their step, courtesy of Eastern Cape's very own sitting on the sidelines.

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