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Sunrisers Eastern Cape captain Aiden Markram believes the Orange Army’s supporters will again play a starring role when they take on the Pretoria Capitals on Wednesday. Picture: SUPPLIED
Sunrisers Eastern Cape captain Aiden Markram believes the Orange Army’s supporters will again play a starring role when they take on the Pretoria Capitals on Wednesday. Picture: SUPPLIED

The Sunrisers Eastern Cape will continue to harness the support of the partisan Orange Army when they host the Pretoria Capitals at St George’s Park in Gqeberha on Wednesday (5.30pm), skipper Aiden Markram said.

The team’s “12th man” was out in full force during the victory over Durban’s Super Giants on Sunday and Markram is banking on similar support with their campaign taking an upward trajectory after two bonus-point victories.

Having started the tournament with record defeats in the first three matches, the men in orange have turned a corner, moving  from the foot of the table with no points to third spot, level on 10 points with the Joburg Super Kings, but ahead of them by virtue of those two bonus points.

“They are unbelievable. Even chatting to Kane Williamson after the match [on Sunday], he said he has never experienced an atmosphere like that.

“It’s really loud in their own kind of PE Orange Army way,” Markram said when asked about their impact on match days. “It definitely pumps you up, because they get behind you ... they carry you through little moments.

“It’s really special to have them coming out and continuing to support us even after the dodgy start we’ve had to the tournament.”

For their next assignment, Markram’s men face a Capitals side who will also be looking to get their campaign on track after registering a win, two losses and two washouts in their opening five matches.

Historically, Capitals have had the rub of the green over the Gqeberha side, winning four of their six encounters across three seasons. Their most recent was by six wickets in Pretoria against Adrian Birrell’s charges earlier in January.

Of the Sunrisers’ two wins against the men in Sky Blue, one was  in the group stage of season two, while their season one triumph came in the championship match at the Wanderers in 2023.

Looking at the first half of their campaign, Markram said the changes to their game plan were minuscule but had made a marked difference in their performances.

“With the bat, we’ve been getting off to much better starts, the guys in the power play have been very good for us and we’ve been doing similar things with the ball as well. We’ve been managing to get in front of the game, whether batting or bowling earlier on and that helps a lot in T20 cricket.

“When you are behind the game, it normally takes something very special to change things around, but a lot of our conversations have been about not trying to do extraordinary things to change things around, but rather nail the basics and do the ordinary things well,” he said.

They bring their treble of home games to an end against the Joburg Super Kings on Friday, who they then face 48 hours later in Johannesburg.

They close out the group stage with contests against MI Cape Town and Paarl Royals in Cape Town and Gqeberha, respectively.

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