SA20: Sunrisers Eastern Cape beats Paarl Royals

Sunrisers Eastern Cape bowled Paarl Royals for the lowest-ever score in the history of the SA20 to claim a 137-run bonus-point victory here. The Sunrisers bowled Royals out for just 49. The battle of the Hermann brothers was comfortably won by Sunrisers’ Jordan, who struck a delightful 62 not out off just 28 balls (5x4, 4x6) to power the two-times champions to 186/4.

The left-hander bookended the Sunrisers’ innings by taking 22 runs off Delano Potgieter’s final over. It was the perfect ending after Quinton de Kock (42 off 24 balls) and Jonny Bairstow (31 off 33 balls) had provided the momentum upfront  with a 66-run stand off only 50 balls.  The momentum was maintained by Matthew Breetzke (31 off 28 balls) and Hermann, who added a further 73 before the blitz at the death.

Royals’ chase never got off the starting blocks with the Sunrisers’ pacemen Marco Jansen (1/15), Adam Milne (2/17) and Anrich Nortje (4/13) wreaking havoc in the Powerplay to reduce the home team to 30/4. Nortje, in particular, worked up a good head of steam in his SA20 comeback after missing the last two seasons due to injury. There was no way back from there for the Royals, who will have to regroup quickly ahead of the rematch against the Sunrisers at St George’s Park on New Year’s eve.