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"contents": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After losing their opening three matches, the reigning two-time champions, Sunrisers Eastern Cape, are back in playoff contention with two bonus-point victories.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aiden Markram’s Orange Army smashed basement dwellers, Durban’s Super Giants, twice this weekend, first away by 58 runs, then at home by six wickets with 4.4 overs to spare.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“A lot of the conversations in the change rooms have been about not trying to do extraordinary things to turn things around, but to nail the basics and do the ordinary things really well,” Markram said about how Sunrisers have turned their fortunes around.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They moved from the bottom of the table with zero points to third with 10 points in three days.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“With the bat, we’ve been getting off to much better starts,” Markram said. “The guys in the powerplay have been good for us.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“With the ball, we’ve been getting off to good starts as well. We’re managing to get in front whether it is batting or bowling early on.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“When you’re behind the game it normally takes something really special to change things around.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the batting order, Sunrisers, coached by the astute Adrian Birrell, have brought in usual opener Jordan Hermann into the middle order and shifted David Bedingham up the order.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It brought some success with the reckless abandon with which Bedingham bats, either giving the team a fast start or he is dismissed without wasting too many balls, while Hermann – who scored a century last season – stabilises the middle order.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Proteas all-format star Tristan Stubbs, meanwhile, has shifted down the order to No 7 in the past two matches, with all-rounder Marco Jansen – who has been superb with ball in hand – coming in ahead of him.</span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2555178\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/ROY11571-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Sunrisers Rickelton\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" /> <em>Ryan Rickelton of MI Cape Town hits over the top to the boundary. (Photo: Sportzpics.co.za)</em></p>\r\n<h4><b>Rickelton comes good</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MI Cape Town – who languished at the bottom of the SA20 table in the first two seasons – are at the top of the tree halfway through this season, with three wins in their opening five matches.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Five wins guarantee a spot in the next round, while in season one four were enough and three were enough for Joburg Super Kings in season two – although teams with the same number of wins failed to progress due to an inferior net-run rate.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paarl Royals are also on three wins, after four matches, but MI are ahead on the table thanks to an incredible seven-wicket, bonus-point win over the Joburg Super Kings on Saturday</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was set up by a scintillating 89 off only 38 deliveries by last season’s top run scorer Ryan Rickelton.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He helped chase down the Super Kings’ par score of 172 in only 15.5 overs through his pure ball striking, hitting six sixes and eight fours at Newlands Cricket Ground, where a few weeks before he scored 259 for the Proteas against Pakistan in the second Test of their series.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“It’s my other home ground, I guess, away from the Wanderers,” Rickelton joked after the match. He plays his domestic cricket at the Lions, whose home ground is the Wanderers Cricket Stadium.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“[Newlands] is a nice place to play,” he said. “Great crowds [and] the wicket’s been generous to me the last few years, so I’ll try to cash in as much as I can.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rickelton didn’t play in MI Cape Town’s six-wicket defeat to neighbours Paarl Royals on Wednesday. He confirmed to the media that he missed out on the match because he was infected by Covid-19.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I got Covid,” he said. “I was man down for a good four, five days… I still have it, but [I’m] fit enough to play.”</span>\r\n<h4><b>Injured fast bowlers</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pretoria Capitals have announced the signing of an experienced Aussie pair, left-arm seamer Jason Behrendorff and all-rounder Ashton Turner. Both are already in South Africa after their Big Bash League side, the Perth Scorchers, failed to progress to the knockout stage of the Australian T20 league tournament.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They will be hoping the Australians will bring a change in fortune for the side currently sitting second from bottom, having only won one of their first five matches.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The two fastest South African bowlers in the tournament will play no further part in this season’s SA20.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pretoria Capitals will be without Anrich Nortje for the rest of the tournament, after the pace ace suffered another back injury. He will also miss the Champions Trophy for South Africa, having been named in the squad for the international tournament in Pakistan and the UAE last week.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Joburg Super Kings’ Gerald Coetzee, who would be the natural replacement in the Proteas’ Champions Trophy squad, has also suffered an injury while on duty for the Kings. His possible participation in the Champions Trophy will be decided in the first week of February. </span><b>DM</b>",
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"description": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After losing their opening three matches, the reigning two-time champions, Sunrisers Eastern Cape, are back in playoff contention with two bonus-point victories.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aiden Markram’s Orange Army smashed basement dwellers, Durban’s Super Giants, twice this weekend, first away by 58 runs, then at home by six wickets with 4.4 overs to spare.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“A lot of the conversations in the change rooms have been about not trying to do extraordinary things to turn things around, but to nail the basics and do the ordinary things really well,” Markram said about how Sunrisers have turned their fortunes around.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They moved from the bottom of the table with zero points to third with 10 points in three days.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“With the bat, we’ve been getting off to much better starts,” Markram said. “The guys in the powerplay have been good for us.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“With the ball, we’ve been getting off to good starts as well. We’re managing to get in front whether it is batting or bowling early on.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“When you’re behind the game it normally takes something really special to change things around.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the batting order, Sunrisers, coached by the astute Adrian Birrell, have brought in usual opener Jordan Hermann into the middle order and shifted David Bedingham up the order.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It brought some success with the reckless abandon with which Bedingham bats, either giving the team a fast start or he is dismissed without wasting too many balls, while Hermann – who scored a century last season – stabilises the middle order.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Proteas all-format star Tristan Stubbs, meanwhile, has shifted down the order to No 7 in the past two matches, with all-rounder Marco Jansen – who has been superb with ball in hand – coming in ahead of him.</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2555178\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2555178\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/ROY11571-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Sunrisers Rickelton\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" /> <em>Ryan Rickelton of MI Cape Town hits over the top to the boundary. (Photo: Sportzpics.co.za)</em>[/caption]\r\n<h4><b>Rickelton comes good</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MI Cape Town – who languished at the bottom of the SA20 table in the first two seasons – are at the top of the tree halfway through this season, with three wins in their opening five matches.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Five wins guarantee a spot in the next round, while in season one four were enough and three were enough for Joburg Super Kings in season two – although teams with the same number of wins failed to progress due to an inferior net-run rate.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paarl Royals are also on three wins, after four matches, but MI are ahead on the table thanks to an incredible seven-wicket, bonus-point win over the Joburg Super Kings on Saturday</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was set up by a scintillating 89 off only 38 deliveries by last season’s top run scorer Ryan Rickelton.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He helped chase down the Super Kings’ par score of 172 in only 15.5 overs through his pure ball striking, hitting six sixes and eight fours at Newlands Cricket Ground, where a few weeks before he scored 259 for the Proteas against Pakistan in the second Test of their series.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“It’s my other home ground, I guess, away from the Wanderers,” Rickelton joked after the match. He plays his domestic cricket at the Lions, whose home ground is the Wanderers Cricket Stadium.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“[Newlands] is a nice place to play,” he said. “Great crowds [and] the wicket’s been generous to me the last few years, so I’ll try to cash in as much as I can.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rickelton didn’t play in MI Cape Town’s six-wicket defeat to neighbours Paarl Royals on Wednesday. He confirmed to the media that he missed out on the match because he was infected by Covid-19.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I got Covid,” he said. “I was man down for a good four, five days… I still have it, but [I’m] fit enough to play.”</span>\r\n<h4><b>Injured fast bowlers</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pretoria Capitals have announced the signing of an experienced Aussie pair, left-arm seamer Jason Behrendorff and all-rounder Ashton Turner. Both are already in South Africa after their Big Bash League side, the Perth Scorchers, failed to progress to the knockout stage of the Australian T20 league tournament.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They will be hoping the Australians will bring a change in fortune for the side currently sitting second from bottom, having only won one of their first five matches.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The two fastest South African bowlers in the tournament will play no further part in this season’s SA20.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pretoria Capitals will be without Anrich Nortje for the rest of the tournament, after the pace ace suffered another back injury. 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Ryan Rickelton of MI Cape Town hits over the top to the boundary. (Photo: Sportzpics.co.za)