Sunrisers Eastern Cape: A superb bowling performance helped Pretoria Capitals hand Sunrisers Eastern Cape their second bonus-point defeat of the SA20 Season 3, beating the defending champions by six wickets here on Tuesday.
Capitals' captain, Rilee Rossouw won the toss at the Centurion and elected to bowl at the short of form back-to-back champions. That decision proved justified when the men in orange slipped to 4/3 inside two overs and then 50/6 before Marco Jansen and Simon Harmer finally established a meaningful partnership. Jansen (51 off 35 balls, 4x4, 3x6) was the main protagonist of their 40-run stand, but when Harmer fell to fellow spinner Senuran Muthusamy the end of the innings was near... with them soon being bowled out for just 113 -- under-par for even a tricky Centurion pitch.
For their part, the Capitals made a solid enough start as Will Jacks raced to 27 off 23 balls. However, his wicket -- alongside those of Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Kyle Verreynne, and Rossouw -- kept the Sunrisers believing there was a chance when they were reduced to 61/4 in the ninth over. However, an unbeaten 55-run partnership between Liam Livingstone (14 not out, 1x4) and Marques Ackerman (39 not out, 2x4, 2x6) carried Capitals, with Ackerman's six off the last ball of the 16th over sealing the bonus point.
