The opening round of SA20 Season 4 matches has seen all the visiting teams dominate, not least at Boland Park on Saturday night. Sunrisers bowled Royals out for just 49 — the lowest ever score in the history of SA20 — to claim a bonus point 137-run bonus-point victory. It was also the first time the Sunrisers have triumphed in their opening game of the season.
The battle of the Hermann brothers at Boland Park was comfortably won by Sunrisers’ Jordan, who struck a delightful 62 not out off just 28 balls (5×4, 4×6) to power the two-time champions to 186/4. The left-hander bookended the Sunrisers’ innings by taking 22 runs off Delano Potgieter’s final over. It was the perfect ending after Quinton de Kock (42 off 24 balls) and Jonny Bairstow (31 off 33 balls) had provided the momentum upfront with a 66-run stand-off only 50 balls.
The momentum was maintained by Matthew Breetzke (31 off 28 balls) and Hermann, who added a further 73 off 42 balls for the fourth wicket before the blitz at the death. Royals’ chase never got out of the starting blocks with the Sunrisers’ pacemen Marco Jansen (1/15), Adam Milne (2/17) and Anrich Nortje (4/13) wreaking havoc in the Powerplay to reduce the home team to 30/4. Nortje, in particular, worked up a good head of steam in his SA20 comeback after “The Uitenhage Express” missed the last two seasons due to injury. There was no way back from there for the Royals, who will have to regroup quickly ahead of the rematch against the Sunrisers at St George’s Park on New Year’s Eve.
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