Sunrisers Eastern Cape fast bowler Anrich Nortje celebrates the wicket of Paarl Royals player Asa Tribe during the SA20 match in Paarl on Saturday night. Picture: Sportzpics for SA20 The SA20 is ready to kick into high gear this week, after an exciting first weekend of action got season four off to a rollicking start around the country. A new festive window for SA’s premier franchise tournament looks to be a cracking success, with superb crowds seen in Cape Town, Centurion, Paarl and Durban.
On the cricket field, some terrific action has already been seen, with Durban’s Super Giants making a major statement by beating defending champs MI Cape Town in ahigh scoring thrillerin the Boxing Day opener at a packed Newlands on Friday night. On Saturday afternoon the Joburg Super Kings stunned the Pretoria Capitals at SuperSport Park, clinching a superb win over the big spenders, who made a splash at the auction a few months ago by snapping up Dewald Brevis for a record R16.5 million. The Sunrisers produced the otherstatement performanceof the weekend, destroying the Paarl Royals on their home turf in the Saturday evening game.
Perhaps the best individual efforts of the first weekend were produced by Proteas T20 World Cup hopefulsRyan RickeltonandAnrich Nortje, and they will want to back up those performances to give themselves a chance of being picked for the tournament being played in India and Sri Lanka in February and March. Rickelton hammered a career best 113 off 63 balls for MICT, but it wasn’t enough as they fell short, compiling 217/7 while chasing a mammoth 232 total. Nortje picked up brilliant figures of 4/13 in three overs for the Sunrisers to help skittle the Royals for a paltry 49 all out, as the hosts chased a daunting target of 186.
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Other strong showings came from Devon Conway (64 off 33), Kane Williamson (40 off 25), Aiden Markram (35 off 17), Evan Jones (33 not out off 14) and Eathan Bosch (4/46), all representing DSG, as well as MICT’s Jason Smith (41 off 14). In the JSK v Capitals game, Rilee Rossouw (48 off 33), Wiaan Mulder (43 off 28 and 1/22) and Duan Jansen (4/23) starred for the visitors, while the home team’s best efforts came from Bryce Parsons (41 off 30 and 2/22), Tymal Mills (2/17) and Codi Yusuf (2/29). The game in Paarl was all about the Sunrisers, as Jordan Hermann (62 not out off 28), Quinton de Kock (42 off 24), Tharindu Ratnayake (2/9) and Adam Milne (2/7) all impressed.
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