Defending champions Cape Town kept alive their chances of qualifying for the Betway SA20 cricket playoffs on the back of a quality bowling performance against Sunrisers Eastern Cape at Newlands in Cape Town on Friday night.
Hitting the right areas with the ball on a pitch where strokeplay was not easy, they were able to restrict the Eastern Cape franchise to 139/9 in their innings and then seized the moment to win by three wickets.
It was a tight finish in the end, with Cape Town passing the finishing line with only three wickets in hand and four balls remaining.
The two sides will meet in the reverse fixture when they square up at St George’s Park on Sunday, starting at 3.30pm.
With New Zealander Trent Boult producing his best performance of the season, taking 3/28, Sunrisers could not break the stranglehold. Every time someone tried to force the pace, a wicket would fall.
It was only thanks to a late flourish by Marco Jansen with 42 off 23 balls that they were able to give their bowlers something to defend.
Despite losing their first two wickets for just 18 runs, Cape Town fought back to stay in contention for just their third win in nine matches this season.
Reeze Hendricks held the innings together with 41 off 43 balls, while George Linde blitzed 31 off 18 balls to make sure Cape Town did not throw away this golden opportunity.
The Herald
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