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Daryn Dupavillon of Pretoria Capitals celebrates the wicket of David Bedingham of Sunrisers Eastern Cape. Picture: SA20/ARJUN SINGH
Daryn Dupavillon of Pretoria Capitals celebrates the wicket of David Bedingham of Sunrisers Eastern Cape. Picture: SA20/ARJUN SINGH

The Sunrisers Eastern Cape seem intent on taking the scenic route to another SA20 title after suffering a third consecutive defeat, this time to the Pretoria Capitals at a half-full SuperSport Park on Tuesday. 

The champions of the first two years of the tournament have struggled to assert themselves with the bat, and as in their first match against MI Cape Town, suffered a horrible implosion at a mostly sunny Centurion.

It was, as both teams claimed, a tricky surface, after being under cover for almost a week, making the toss crucial. The Capital’s skipper, Rilee Rossouw, won it, and by the end of the second over that decision was justified as the Sunrisers lost three wickets for just four runs.

“Guys couldn’t really walk in and hit the ball from the start,” said the Capitals’ Daryn Dupavillon.

“You saw it with [Marco] Jansen, he took his time for the first 20 balls and then got the pace of the wicket.”

Jansen top scored in the match with 51, and was the only reason the Sunrisers were able to squeeze the total passed 100.

The Sunrisers are leaning heavily on how well they recovered in the first season of SA20 as a reason not to panic about their poor start this year. 

They lost their first two matches in 2023 before going on to win the competition.

“We haven’t started well in previous editions and managed to find a way and hopefully we can get into that sort of form and confidence in the next couple of weeks. We are running out of time and we need to make play,” said the Sunrisers’ assistant coach, Russell Domingo.

Russell Domingo in Johannesburg. March 2 2024. Picture: LEE WARREN/GALLO IMAGES
Russell Domingo in Johannesburg. March 2 2024. Picture: LEE WARREN/GALLO IMAGES

They won only four of their round-robin fixtures in 2023 too, so they are by no means out of contention — especially with only two teams being eliminated after the league phase. But the difference with at least two of their defeats this season is how they have collapsed when batting.

Bowled out for 77 in the tournament opener in Gqeberha last week, Tuesday’s capitulation was embarrassing.

They made a personnel change at the top of the order, axing Jordan Hermann, one of their star young performers in the first two seasons, and moving David Bedingham to the opening berth.

“The main reason we dropped Jordan was to get Patrick Kruger into the team,” Domingo explained. “He’s had an injury and is a starting player for us.

“Bedingham is also suited to playing up the order, he’s a class player.”

He added that Bedingham and fellow opener Zak Crawley were still new in their roles and needed to find a suitable blueprint.

“We need to find the balance between being attacking and being organised up front. We need to find it soon,” said Domingo.

Bedingham made just two on Tuesday, the first half of Dupavillon’s consecutive strikes in what turned into a double wicket maiden in his first over. The second was Aiden Markram’s wicket who was unlucky to lift a leg-stump half volley — his first ball — to Rahmanullah Gurbaz on the square leg boundary.

Sunrisers lost more wickets in their batting power play than they scored boundaries — four to two — and even Jansen’s well-crafted half-century wasn’t enough to get them to a respectable total.

Pretoria made short work of the chase, winning by six wickets in the 16th over. Marques Ackerman, playing his first match, made 39 off 30 deliveries, including hitting the last 15 runs off an over from Jansen, that secured not only the win, but also a bonus point.

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