Super Kings and Sunrisers with plenty to ponder before ‘Eliminator’

Their final positions on the competition’s points table tell of the Joburg Super Kings and Sunrisers Eastern Cape’s struggles to find consistency in this year’s Betway SA20. 

It has left both captain’s unsure about what to expect in Centurion on Wednesday when they clash in the winner-takes-all ‘eliminator.’ 

“We understand that we’ve done okay so far, we ‘ve not been amazing in the tournament,” said Du Plessis of the Super Kings. 

“We’ve either played some really good cricket or it’s been far from satisfying and hopefully we can bridge that gap and put together a good game,” Markram offered about the two time defending champions.

The Sunrisers finished with five wins from 10 matches, four of those victories coming in front of their rowdy home crowd at St George’s Park. There will be a bad version of the band in Centurion, so as much as he’d like, Markram knows, it’s his players who will have to find the best version of themselves. 

Ahead of the knockout fixture, Du Plessis is a worried man. “I’m just thinking about getting 11 players on the park, that’s my biggest concern,” he chirped. 

Already missing Nandre Burger, Lizaad Williams, Gerald Coetzee, David Wiese, on Tuesday the Super Kings were absorbing the news that Donavan Ferreira won’t be available for Wednesday. Ferreira, produced a bewildering knock at the Wanderers on Saturday night, hitting five sixes in his innings of 51, which came off only 22 balls. 

However in the process of taking an almighty swing at the ball in the last over, he damaged a muscle in his abdomen. 

Although not at his best with the bat this year, Ferreira has shown there are more strings to his bow; he’s taken some outstanding catches, but most impressively he’s produced crucial overs with the ball — in the power play and at the death. “He’s been a trump card for me — we will miss his overs,” said Du Plessis.

“We also know what he has in his skill set as a batter, we will miss him in that finishing role as well.”

Ferreira’s absence is exacerbated by the effect it has on the balance of the starting side. “One injury brings two changes here or three changes there,” Du Plessis remarked.

Then there’s the form of some of his players, which in the case of Wihan Lubbe, Sibonelo Makhanya and Tabraiz Shamsi, has been poor. Fortunately for Du Plessis, his two replacement seamers, Lutho Sipamla and Hardus Viljoen have been outstanding. 

“They were down the pecking order in terms of players who have been picked. The two of them have really stepped up,” said Du Plessis. 

Sipamla, who wasn’t initially picked up at the auction and Viljoen have shared 24 wickets across 15 matches. “He has to take a lot of credit. He’s got an incredible head on his shoulders. He’s like a sponge, absorbing all the information that I throw at him. To his credit, he’s done all the magic,” Du Plessis said of Sipamla. 

Markram’s concerns are less complex — he just needs the Sunrisers’ top order to fire. Having run out of patience with England opener Zak Crawley, they’ve roped in Tony de Zorzi — who was a replacement for the injured all-rounder Patrick Kruger — to open, but he’s yet to fire. 

Markram feels that Jordan Hermann who had successful at the top of the order in the first two seasons, is better suited to a ‘floating’ role, anywhere from 3 to 5, and because of the balance of the team, Tristan Stubbs, needs to stay in the middle order, even it’s tempting to shift him to no.3 and get him to face as much of the bowling as possible. 

“We’ve not been good as a batting unit,” said Markram. 

These two teams met in what was then a semifinal in the first season of the competition, where a century from Markram won the match for the Sunrisers. 

Despite the know-how from their success in the last two seasons, Markram said his side can’t only rely on history to help them on Wednesday.

“It’s a completely new game tomorrow, you don’t walk on the field thinking you’re ahead because you’ve been (successful) in that position before. We pride ourselves on winning from any position, we will scrap and try to find a way to win.”