The Sunrisers Eastern Cape have made the best of their scrappy SA20 third edition, and as they continue to make ends meet, they will be within touching distance of reaching their third straight final when they take on the Paarl Royals at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Thursday night.
The Eastern Cape outfit beat the Joburg Super Kings in the first eliminator by 32 runs on Wednesday and they will next meet the Royals, who missed out on a spot in the final following their 39-run loss against the MI Cape Town on Tuesday.
History will be made either way, as there could be a possibility of two new finalists or we could see the Sunrisers continue their dominance and take a step closer to defending their title on Saturday.
Captain Aiden Markram has been at the forefront of the Orange Army’s charge this season and he once again delivered a captain's knock when it was needed the most.
His match winning 62 off 40 balls recovered the former champions from a nervy score of 75/4 after nine overs.
The 30-year-old is the third-highest run scorer in the tournament with 323 runs, and he was happy with the contribution made by the batters on the night.
“We haven’t been at our best this competition, and we got a little bit close to that in this game,” Markram said after the match on Wednesday.
“Our bowlers have been good for us, but from a batting point of view, our batters haven’t clicked the way we would have liked to.
“Good signs tonight with the bat at least; small things like that opening partnership go a really long way for us and then for some of us to spend some time out there to get to 180 is a step in the right direction.
“The start was massive for us; I think we had 50 on the board when we lost our first wicket, and that allows the team to take a bit of time after losing a flurry of wickets. We managed to absorb the pressure, and I thought we could have gotten more than 180.
Despite being the standout performer with the bat, Markram still believes some of their batters are also hitting form at the right time, and he is not feeling any pressure to do the bulk of the scoring.
“There is not too much pressure or dependence on me; we have too many world-class batters in our lineup. fortunately, with tournament cricket, you play a lot of games very often and if you get into form, you can run with it and shoot the lights out
“But if its on the other side, it can be quite tough. We saw some good glimpses from a guy like Jordan Hermann who made runs in the previous game.
“Each guy is slowly but surely finding their way and getting a bit of form and confidence back; its a better place for us to be than at the start.”