Well, our ticket to the SA20 2024 final will have to wait! The boys gave it their all in Newlands but fell short in Qualifier 1 vs Sunrisers Eastern Cape in Cape Town on Tuesday.

Our bowlers did brilliantly to restrict the defending champions to 157/8 but our chase didn’t quite get going on a challenging surface.

Maharaj leads his bowling troops from the front

Asked to field first, our pacers kept it tight at the start and allowed the SEC openers just 45 runs in Powerplay. However, we still needed a breakthrough and our captain fantastic, Keshav Maharaj, delivered.

However, shortly after Jordan Hermann nicked one straight to Quinton de Kock off Maharaj, the covers came on as it started to pour in Cape Town. Play resumed after a while and Maharaj struck almost immediately, this time accounting for Tom Abell to reduce Sunrisers to 61/2.

Dawid Malan and SEC captain Aiden Markram, however, put on 59 runs for the fourth wicket to take the reigning champions past 100. We desperately needed the partnership to end and it was Dwaine Pretorius who took up the responsibility, dismissing Malan for 63.

Naveen Ul-Haq, who took Malan’s catch, then removed Markram for 30 to put us in control. Julian Dala further reinforced our position with two wickets in the 18th over.

Some tight bowling and brilliant fielding in the outfield in the death overs restricted SEC to a score of 157/8.

To put the brilliant work our bowlers did into context, SEC looked to be cruising at 105/2 after 13 overs.

A valiant chase falls short

With the surface offering a lot of purchase with the new ball, our run chase didn’t get off to the best of starts and we were reduced to 13/3 after losing Tony de Zorzi, Matthew Breetzke and JJ Smuts in quick succession.

Quinton de Kock and Wiaan Mulder began the rebuild and combined for a 44-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Just as the pair was looking comfortable out in the middle, de Kock had to walk back as Liam Dawson produced a brilliant catch off his own bowling.

Mulder, now joined by Heinrich Klaasen out in the middle, attempted to pick up the scoring rate and after some big hits, played one straight to Abell in the deep while trying to hit Dawson for a maximum.

At 81/5 after 14 overs, the odds weren’t quite in our favour. Klaasen, 23 off 15, did take a late crack at it but our innings eventually ended at 106.

What next for the Super Giants?

We head to Johannesburg to play Qualifier 2 on Thursday, where we will face the winner of tomorrow’s Eliminator between Paarl Royals and Joburg Super Kings.

Brief Scores: Sunrisers Eastern Cape 157/8 in 20 overs (Dawid Malan 63; Keshav Maharaj 2/30) beat Durban’s Super Giants 106/10 in 20 overs (Wiaan Mulder 38; Ottniel Baartman 4/10) by 51 runs.