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An excellent crowd of 22,010 was in attendance at the Wanderers in Johannesburg for the first ever SA20 final. Sunrisers Eastern Cape emerged champions, beating group stage winners Pretoria Capitals by four wickets at the Bullring.

The Capitals welcomed back regular skipper Wayne Parnell from injury, with the left-arm pacer replacing Senuran Muthusamy in their XI for the final. Sunrisers EC were unchanged, and opted to bowl first after skipper Aiden Markram won the toss in Joburg. Continue reading “Pretoria Capitals vs Sunrisers Eastern Cape SA20 Final Attendance Wanderers 22,010 February 12 2023- Roelof van der Merwe MOTM”

The T20 Womens World Cup started with a shock result as hosts South Africa were beaten by outsiders Sri Lanka in front of a 8,402 strong crowd at Newlands in Cape Town. This 8402 attendance was so far the biggest one for a game involving the Proteas ladies in South Africa (albeit comfortably lower than the crowd for the SA20 opener at the same venue last month).

Sri Lanka’s innings owed a lot to Chamari Athapaththu- easily the country’s best batter. She made 68 (50)- more than half of the side’s runs, on her own, and her strong performance in the middle overs laid the foundation for this big upset in Cape Town. South Africa, who had beaten India in a tri-series final a few days ago, were sluggish in their own middle overs (44 between 7-15 compared to the 63 scored by SLW), and despite some frantic hitting at the end, ended three runs short. The Proteas ladies probably missed the experience of Dane van Niekerk- omitted from the squad due to fitness reasons. Given that the group also consists of Australia and New Zealand, the hosts’ campaign is probably as good as over at this early stage of the tournament- Sri Lanka were a team everyone expected to beat.