Sunrisers back in another final, after Royals are spun out

As a spectacle, this wasn’t it.

This is not, from the perspective of the cricket, what the SA20’s organisers would have wanted for a match of this importance.

Graeme Smith, the league’s commissioner, and his guests, including Banyana coach Desiree Ellis, found hitting sixes easier in their halftime charity game.

But the professionals were left scratching around, looking like they’d never held a bat.

Talk was of the Wankhede Wanderers, and the surface certainly played like something that has become commonplace for Test matches in India in the last decade.

This season, this venue has seen four totals of more than 200, but the pitch used last night [Friday] was the same as the one used in last Saturday’s fixture between the Pretoria Capitals and Joburg Super Kings, when the visitors were reduced to 7/5 inside the power play.

There were frowns after that fixture, and the groundstaff erred badly in reusing the same strip for a playoff match.

It was not fit for purpose, and the Royals batters simply couldn’t get to grips with it.

Kyle Verreynne top scored with 52, but it won’t rank among innings he’ll be bragging about to his grandchildren.

The Proteas Test wicketkeeper is an unattractive batter at the best of times, and his knock on Friday was a ragged old mess, but he didn’t get out.

Riding his luck and showing the necessary grit, he compiled an innings that got the Royals to a total north of 100.

What this match did demonstrate was the Sunrisers Eastern Cape’s resourcefulness, skill, patience and experience.

They’re a team that, over the four years of this competition, have shown — even with different personnel — that they adapt better to situations and conditions than any other side.

And so they’re back in the final, as is the norm for them.

They had all their bases covered.

The seamers were superb, with Lutho Sipamla, playing his third match this season, making the initial breakthrough when he dismissed Lhuan-dre Pretorius.

Marco Jansen went wicketless but conceded less than 20 runs in his spell, while Anrich Nortje bowled rockets and claimed two wickets.

But it was the spinners who enjoyed themselves the most. Senuran Muthusamy must have thought he was back in Lahore, where he took 11 wickets last year, such was the turn he was getting.

The Australian, Chris Green, a late call-up by the Sunrisers, couldn’t believe his eyes when one delivery spun and bounced so lavishly that when it was replayed on the big screen, many in the crowd just laughed.

The Royals, who have normally thrived in these sorts of conditions at Boland Park, were stunned. It was too extreme. They struggled to cope, and a total of 114/7 was inadequate.

Their own spinners, by comparison with the Sunrisers, weren’t able to attain the same sort of purchase.

Quinton de Kock blitzed Bjorn Fortuin in the first over for two fours, and Jonny Bairstow swept him for six.

Fortuin got a measure of revenge, knocking back De Kock’s middle stump in his second over and then trapping Bairstow lbw, but the openers had broken the back of the run chase.

James Coles smashed 45 off 19 balls, including the winning hit for six over midwicket, in the 12th over.

The Sunrisers will face the Pretoria Capitals in Sunday afternoon’s final at Newlands, trying to win the title for the third time, while the Capitals, whom they beat in the final in season one, are going in search of their first championship.

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