MI Cape Town booked their first-ever place in the SA20 playoffs in emphatic fashion with a dominant 10-wicket bonus-point victory over Sunrisers Eastern Cape at Newlands on Wednesday evening.
It was also the first time the Sunrisers have ever lost at Newlands since the inception of the competition.
After the Sunrisers Eastern Cape’s dominance in the SA20 over the past two seasons, this victory may yet be the overriding signal that the tide is turning to the Western Cape, with MI Cape Town now set to meet current table-toppers Paarl Royals in the first Qualifier at St George’s Park in Gqeberha.
It was a clinical overall performance from Robin Peterson’s team, who were simply much better in all departments on Wednesday.
The fielding, in particular, was next level, with Dewald Brevis leading the way with a spectacular one-handed diving catch on the square-leg boundary to dismiss Tom Abell.
Someone sign Dewald Brevis up for the #BetwayCatch2Million 🤯
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) January 29, 2025
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Brevis’ catch was reminiscent of the legendary grab in front of The Oaks grass embankment by former Proteas batter Adam Bacher off Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar’s blade in the 1996 New Year Test match.
The defending champions simply never pitched up on Wednesday, with new recruit Tony de Zorzi’s rustiness visible as the left-handed opener laboured to an eight-ball two on his Sunrisers debut.
De Zorzi had not played any competitive cricket since the Boxing Day Test last year at Centurion, but such is the Sunrisers’ desperation for a good start at the top of the order that they discarded the struggling Zak Crawley for the dreadlocked Protea.
It was the start of a slippery slope that ultimately saw the Sunrisers dismissed for just 107, with only David Bedingham’s run-a-ball 45 providing some semblance of respectability to the total.
MI Cape Town’s Corbin Bosch was the destroyer-in-chief as he collected a SA20 career-best 4/19.
It was the second time the Sunrisers batting unit have been blown away by MI Cape Town this season, after their record-low 77 in the tournament opener at St George’s Park.
In contrast, MI Cape Town’s opening pair of Rassie van der Dussen (48 not out off 30 balls, 4x4, 2x6) and Ryan Rickelton (59 not out off 36 balls, 8x4, 1x6) are in the form of their lives as they hunted down the 108-run target with a massive nine overs to spare.
The dominance of their performance was punctuated in the very first over of the run chase, with Van der Dussen laying down an early marker by taking down the tournament’s leading seam bowler Marco Jansen with a boundary first ball and a straight six three balls later.
The runs flowed freely from thereon, with Sunrisers captain Aiden Markram and his team left shell-shocked by the manner in which they have now been dispatched two games in succession, after their nine-wicket defeat to Joburg Super Kings last Sunday too.
Markram, along with coach Aiden Birrell, will have to find a way of arresting this slide very quickly as they remain in contention for the playoffs, but they are in need of drastic improvements across departments.
MI Cape Town, meanwhile, now have plenty of breathing space to fine-tune a few small things ahead of their final two league matches against Pretoria Capitals home and away.
On the basis of Wednesday’s night utterly dominant performance, there are fortunately not many.