MI Cape Town 140 for 7 (Hendricks 41, Linde 31, Jansen 2-23, Muthusamy 2-25) beat Sunrisers Eastern Cape 139 for 9 (Jansen 42, Bosch 4-34, Boult 3-28) by three wickets
After 16 overs, MICT were 114 for 4, 26 runs away from victory, which meant they would not secure a bonus point and that impacted the playoff spots. MI sent Pretoria Capitals, who they lost to in both fixtures this season, through to the playoffs. Three of the four playoff sides are confirmed – Sunrises, Paarl Royals and Capitals, with MICT, Joburg Super Kings and Durban’s Super Giants fighting for the last spot.
One of the battles for places in South Africa’s T20 World Cup squad was between left-handed opening batters and wicketkeepers Ryan Rickelton and Quinton de Kock. While de Kock won the spot, Rickelton has made the statements. After two centuries in SA20, Rickelton wanted to make sure the selectors remember him and now he has made sure de Kock will too. With pressure on MICT, Sunrisers chose to bat and de Kock strode out to face the first ball. Boult sent it down back of a length, wide and moving away, de Kock slashed and edged and Rickelton did the rest to remove the player who had taken his place for a first-ball duck.
Jansen makes MICT sweat … with the bat
Sunrisers were 37 for 3 after the powerplay and then went boundary-less for the next four overs to reach the halfway stage on 57 on 3. Jordan Hermann (12) and Tristan Stubbs (4) were both dismissed cheaply and it was up to Jansen to lift Sunrisers to something they could defend. He quickly proved he was up to the task. He sent the third ball he faced – a short one from Bosch – over long-on for six and the next – an attempted yorker – past the wicketkeeper for four. Jansen went on to smash three more sixes, all off his national team-mates. He cleared the ropes off George Linde and Kagiso Rabada and then sent another Bosch short ball over the railway stand and onto the train tracks for the innings’ biggest hit. But that’s where Jansen’s fun ended. He tried to send Bosch’s next ball over deep midwicket but miscued and Jason Smith took a good catch, leaving Sunrisers 123 for 7 in the 18th.
And ball… and in the field
With a relatively straightforward task of chasing at seven runs an over, MICT may not have needed to take too many risks but with a bonus point on their mind, the openers looked to force the issue and failed. In the third over, Rassie van der Dussen sent a Jansen ball that landed just outside off stump straight to Stubbs at mid-off and was the first to fall. Two overs later, Rickelton was unable to continue to build his case against de Kock when Jansen cramped him for room as he hit Muthusamy at mid-on. MICT were 19 for 2 in the fifth over. Jansen could not be kept out of the game as he also took the catch that ended MICT’s biggest partnership of 44 runs for the fourth wicket between Hendricks and Linde, who was caught at long-off. MICT kept losing wickets as they got closer to the target but Hendricks kept them steady before Bosch hit the winning runs in the last over.
