Defending champs Sunrisers Eastern Cape book their spot in the SA20 final as tournament reaches business end

Written by: Bafokeng Mothebe

The second season of the Betway SA20 has reached its business end, with the first spot of the final belonging to the defending champions, the Sunrisers Eastern Cape, following a win over the Durban Super Giants on Tuesday night in Cape Town.

A new playoff structure for the league will commence, with a qualifier 1 between the top two teams, of which the winner will secure a place in the final, an eliminator between the third and fourth placed teams, where the loser will be dumped out of the competition. The loser of qualifier 1 and the winner of the eliminator will battle it out for the last place in the final, in qualifier 2.

The teams that qualified for the playoffs are the top 4 teams on the table. The teams are the Sunrisers Eastern Cape, Durban Super Giants, Paarl Royals and the Joburg Super Kings, who were the last to qualify, after seeing themselves moving in and out of the knockout race. Last season’s runner up the Pretoria Capitals and MI Cape Town, finished the round robin stages in 5^th and 6^th place respectively, and have not qualified for the playoffs.

Qualifier 1 saw the defending champions, Sunrisers Eastern Cape, walk off to the final, after beating the Durban Super Giants by 51 runs at Newlands Cricket Ground, on Tuesday night.  The Cape Town rain disrupted play in the first innings, however play resumed after 20H30 with no overs being removed.

The Eliminator on Wednesday afternoon, will see the Paarl Royals and the Joburg Super Kings aiming to take each other out of the competition at the Wanderers Cricket Stadium in Johannesburg. The winner of this encounter will face the Durban Super Giants on Thursday afternoon in the second and last qualifier, where one team will advance to face the defending champions at Newlands on Saturday the 10^th of February, in the final of tournament. The Eastern Cape side will aim to win back-to-back championships, following their win of the first season’s tournament, against the Pretoria Capitals.