Sunrisers Eastern Cape 117 for 3 (Coles 45*, de Kock 25, Fortuin 2-26) beat Paarl Royals 114 for 7 (Verreynne 52*, Muthusamy 3-15, Nortje 2-31, Coles 1-15) by seven wickets
Sunrisers Eastern Cape (SEC) will have a crack at their third SA20 title after making their fourth final in as many seasons seasons since the inception of the league in 2023. Having lost Qualifier 1 to Pretoria Capitals, SEC will meet them again in the final on Sunday in Cape Town after knocking Paarl Royals (PR) out in Qualifier 2 on Friday.
Left-arm spinners Senuran Muthusamy and James Coles asphyxiated PR on a dry Wanderers pitch that offered plenty of turn, and some variable bounce. While Muthusamy claimed 3 for 15 in his four overs, Coles came away with 1 for 15 in his quota, including a maiden. Wicketkeeper-opener Kyle Verreynne countered the conditions with an unbeaten half-century, and dragged PR to 114 for 7.
It wasn’t competitive, though PR struck three times in the powerplay. But eventually, SEC completed the chase with seven wickets and 50 balls to spare. After impressing with the ball, Coles also contributed handsomely with the bat, remaining unbeaten on 45 off 19 balls.
Spin to win
After PR opted to bat, Lutho Sipamla, who had replaced Lewis Gregory, struck in the second over to remove Lhuan-dre Pretorius for 3 off eight balls. Anrich Nortje then drew a top edge from Rubin Hermann with a short ball that held up in the pitch. Muthusamy then combined superbly with Coles to wreck PR’s middle order.
After having both Asa Tribe and Sikandar Raza stumped, Muthusamy sent Rovman Powell, who had replaced the injured David Miller, packing for 1 in the 15th over. Earlier, in the last over of the powerplay, Dan Lawrence, the stand-in captain, had spooned Coles to short cover for 4.
SEC have always been big on left-arm spin in the SA20. Muthusamy and Coles followed the footsteps of Roelof van der Merwe and Liam Dawson, and also found assistance from Chris Green. The spinners had combined figures of 10-1-47-4 on Friday.
Verreynne battles for PR
The spin dominance meant PR had to search for runs elsewhere. Verreynne batted through the 20 overs, scoring 52 off 46 balls, of which 27 came off seamers Nortje and Marco Jansen. He had reached his half-century off 41 balls after popping a Jansen slower ball over short fine leg.
Verreynne was more calculative against spin, playing with the turn, and with a straight bat on a difficult track. After PR went nearly eight overs without a boundary, Verreynne ended the drought in the 13th over when he manufactured swinging room, and pumped Coles over extra-cover for six. PR would hit only one more six in their innings.
Full report to follow…
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source africa.espn.com ’
