Johannesburg, Feb 9 MI Cape Town spearhead Kagiso Rabada delivered an inspired performance with the ball to lead his team to their maiden SA20 title at a sold-out Wanderers on Saturday evening.
Rabada’s performance was fitting of the grand occasion with the fast bowler claiming 4-25 to dismiss the Sunrisers Eastern Cape for just 105 in response to MI Cape Town’s 181/8 - the second-highest score in a SA20 final.
Rabada also claimed a brilliant diving catch at point to send Sunrisers skipper Aiden Markram back to the dugout at a critical juncture to swing the game into MI Cape Town’s favour.
The fast bowler was ably supported by the MI Cape Town spin twins George Linde (2-20) and Rashid Khan (1-19).
Having won the toss and elected to bat, MI Cape Town announced their intent from the outset with Ryan Rickelton racing to 33 off 15 balls (1x4, 4x6) to lift his team to 51 within the first five overs.
Rickelton fell soon after though, deceived by a slower ball from Craig Overton, and was followed shortly thereafter by Reeza Hendricks (0 off 2 balls) as MI Cape Town closed out the powerplay on 52/2 – the highest total conceded by Sunrisers Eastern Cape at the six-over mark across the competition.
Rickelton also passed Durban’s Super Giants Heinrich Klaasen as the leading run-scorer in SA20 history with 1012 runs across the three competitions.
Sunrisers kept chipping away with the further wicket of Rassie van der Dussen (23 off 25 balls), who fell just four runs shy of passing the competition’s leading run-scorer Lhuan-dre Pretorius.
MI Cape Town regained their composure through a couple of middle-order partnerships with the 50 runs off just 30 balls between Dewald Brevis (38 off 18 balls) and Connor Esterhuizen (39 off 26 balls) proving pivotal in getting Robin Peterson’s team up to a winning total.
Sunrisers Eastern Cape needed a strong start to give them a chance, but their struggles with the bat in the powerplay continued with David Bedingham and Jordan Hermann both back in the dugout with only eight runs on the board.
Abell and Tony de Zorzi battled hard to rebuild the innings with a 57-run partnership for the third wicket. But they fell within three runs of each other to Linde and Rashid respectively to leave Sunrisers precariously placed on 68/4.
And when Markram followed shortly afterward, Sunrisers’ reign as two-time SA20 champions drew to a close with Rabada providing the coup de grace for MI Cape Town.
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