• MI Cape Town stay in SA20 playoff hunt

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    MI Cape Town revived their SA20 playoff chances with a three-wicket victory over the Sunrisers Eastern Cape at Newlands on Friday.

    The defending champions collected four valuable points to lift them to 14 with their final round-robin fixture against the Sunrisers at St George’s Park on Sunday remaining.

    However, MICT missed out on the bonus point, which resulted in the Pretoria Capitals (20 points) joining the Sunrisers (24) and Paarl Royals (24) as the third team to advance to the playoffs.

    MICT were spurred on by a fifth successive sold-out Newlands crowd from the moment Trent Boult had the in-form Quinton de Kock caught behind the very first ball of the innings.

    The hosts maintained the pressure throughout with Boult rediscovering his form with 3-28 before Corbin Bosch closed out the innings with figures of 4-34.

    All the Sunrisers batsmen struggled to adapt to a two-paced Newlands surface with only Marco Jansen striking the ball with any sort of freedom. The lanky all-rounder stroked four sixes and three fours in his 23-ball 42 and along with a sedate 28 off 27 balls from James Coles, the Sunrisers posted 139-9.

    HIGHLIGHTS: MI Cape Town vs Sunrisers Eastern Cape

    Jansen took his batting form straight into the MICT innings with the left-armer removing both Rassie van der Dussen and the in-form Ryan Rickelton in the powerplay to provide the Sunrisers with the start they would have been hoping for.

    But Reeza Hendricks (41 off 43 balls) played the anchor role to ensure that despite MICT continuing to lose wickets, they would inch closer to the required total.

    All-rounder George Linde struck a breezy 31 off 18 balls and new import Kieron Pollard contributed 20 off 14, but still the Sunrisers stayed in their fight.

    It became tricky towards the end when Hendricks was dismissed off the final ball of the penultimate over, caught at deep cover off Anrich Nortje, leaving MICT requiring four runs off the final over.

    But Sunrisers spinner Senuran Muthusamy (2-25) overstepped to offer up Bosch a free hit to close out the game and keep the defending champions alive in the competition.

    Photo: Ron Gaunt/Sportzpics

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    Simon Borchardt