Sunrisers Eastern Cape will look to absorb the lessons from a comprehensive defeat against Pretoria Capitals in Durban on Wednesday as they prepare for another opportunity on Friday to reach the Betway SA20 cricket final. That was the assessment of batting coach Russell Domingo after Sunrisers went down by seven wickets with nine balls remaining in the first qualifier, having set the Capitals a target of 171. A standout all-round performance from Bryce Parsons (60 and 3/10), combined with some sensational hitting from Dewald Brevis, who struck seven sixes in an unbeaten 75, saw the Pretoria side book their place in Sunday’s final in Cape Town.
Sunrisers will now travel to Johannesburg for a second bite at the cherry, where they will face the winners of Thursday’s eliminator in Centurion between Joburg Super Kings and Paarl Royals. For Domingo, the result underlined the importance of finishing in the top two at the end of the round-robin phase, with Sunrisers having topped the log on 28 points. “It is critical to finish first or second because it gives you another chance,” he said.
“We now have to dust ourselves off and take the lessons from this performance. “It’s never easy to put together a perfect campaign. We just need to move forward and place all our focus on Friday’s game.” Despite the defeat, Domingo does not anticipate major changes to the team’s approach.
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“There’s not too much to do,” he said. “We know where we came up short, both as players and coaches. There are one or two areas we can improve on, but nothing drastic.
“We’re a quality side, and most of the games we’ve lost have gone down to the last over. It’s more about a bit of tinkering here and there.” Domingo felt Sunrisers left runs on the table after being well placed in their innings. “We were in a great position at 128/2 but maybe didn’t finish as well as we would have liked in the last six overs.
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