Sport

SA20 delivers on action-packed promise in a thrilling opening week

Sunrisers Eastern Cape captain Aiden Markram attempts to pull a delivery. (Photo: Shaun Roy)

12 Jan 2025

Delano Potgieter and Lhuan-dre Pretorius have lit up the start of the SA20 while the defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape search for their first win.

The opening week of matches in the SA20 have been action packed. Close finishes; youngsters breaking through; all-rounders making plays; sold-out crowds, from the Paarl sunshine to the Johannesburg rain – there’s been a bit of everything across the country.

Basement dwellers in the opening two seasons of the SA20, MI Cape Town are currently at the top of the log. This is thanks largely to their 97-run thrashing of defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape in the opening match of the season in Gqeberha on Thursday, 9 January 2025.

The star of the show was all-rounder Delano Potgieter, who put his best foot forward with bat and ball. The left-handed batter played a late-order cameo of 25 off 12 deliveries to take his side’s total to 174 for seven on a two-paced St George’s deck.

Delano Potgieter of MI Cape Town celebrates the wicket of Richard Gleeson of Sunrisers Eastern Cape

He then took career-best figures and the second best in SA20 history, with five wickets for 10 runs, to help bowl the reigning champs out for only 77 runs.

Then on Saturday, 11 January 2025, Sunrisers fell to a determined Paarl Royals outfit in Paarl by nine wickets.

Exciting 18-year-old Lhuan-dre Pretorius has grabbed the headlines with his blitzkrieg 97 off only 51 deliveries at the top of the order. Pretorius helped make the 175 that the Sunrisers Eastern Cape fought tooth and nail to score look about 20 runs short.

It was a special innings by the youngster, who was playing alongside Kwena Maphaka, his SA under-19 teammate of the under-19 Cricket World Cup last year. Maphaka returned figures of two wickets for 35 runs in his four overs.

Read more: South Africa’s future stars have been shining at the U19 Cricket World Cup

Pretorius on the attack

Sunrisers Eastern Cape captain Aiden Markram attempts to pull a delivery. (Photo: Shaun Roy)

Pretorius smacked around an international quality bowling attack, which included Ottniel Baartman, Marco Jansen, Aiden Markram and England capped Richard Gleeson.

“He’s special,” Markram said after the match. “You look at him playing and you know that there’s not a lot of guys who can do those things.

“I know he actually works really, really hard as well. It’s nice to see someone so young, full of so much talent, but also with a really strong drive to do well.”

Pretorius opened the batting alongside England superstar Joe Root, who scored an unbeaten 62 off 44 deliveries, as the pair put together a brilliant opening stand of 132.

“The past week has been amazing; a real dream come true,” Pretorius said.

“[I’m] just trying to be like a sponge, soaking everything in. All the knowledge I’m getting from all the big players and coaches.

“Especially batting with Joe [Root] out there. He only faced about four dot balls so I could just find a rhythm and go with it.”

“It hasn’t all soaked in. I’m just going to take it step by step and ride the wave.”

He was trapped LBW by Jansen three runs away from a maiden T20 century and the first in Paarl Royals history, but Root and skipper David Miller held their composure to take their side to a comfortable nine-wicket win at home.

Sunrisers falling behind

Two losses in their opening two matches is the worst possible start Markram and his men would have hoped for in the competition that they have won in its first two seasons.

But coming from sticky situations and winning matches that matter is in the DNA of the Sunrisers Eastern Cape side, who won only four league matches in the 2023 edition of the SA20 before going bang-bang at the knockout stage to secure the inaugural title.

Read more: Sunrisers Eastern Cape end the SA20 party as reigning champions

“There’s a little bit of a piece of mind knowing we’ve been in this position before and we were able to win,” Markram said.

“But you want to win games of cricket, be it at the start of the competition or at the back-end. It’s never nice to lose but we’ve managed this before.”

The match of the season so far took place in Durban as the Super Giants sneaked victory from the jaws of defeat.

Chasing a mammoth 209 to win, the Pretoria Capitals raced to 154 without losing a wicket, thanks to a magnificent opening stand by Will Jacks (64 off 35) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (89 off 43).

But once the opening pair were dismissed, things fell apart for the Capitals with no other batter passing 13 runs despite the run rate being only six an over.

Durban’s Super Giants, meanwhile, held their nerve with Afghanistani pair Naveen-ul-Haq and Noor Ahmad leading the fight-back with tight, economic bowling to help their side to a thrilling two run win. DM

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Pretorius on the attack