Defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape successfully defended their SA20 title on Saturday (February 10) as they outclassed Durban's Super Giants in the summit clash by a convincing margin of 89 runs.
The Aiden Markram-led Sunrisers got lucky with the toss first up and utilised that opportunity to the fullest.
After deciding to bat first on their home turf, the defending champions suffered an early setback as they lost opener Dawid Malan in the second over itself.
However, the early jitter didn't derail the home team as Jordan Hermann and Tom Abell got together in the middle and pushed the Super Giants attack on the backfoot.
The pair added 90 runs for the second wicket and consumed just 54 balls in doing so. Both Hermann (42 off 26 balls) and Abell (55 off 34 balls) fell in quick succession afterwards but the Sunrisers captain and Tristan Stubbs picked up from where they left off.
Markram (42* off 56 deliveries) and Stubbs (56* off 30 balls) decimated the Keshav Maharaj-led bowling attack and the latter was found wanting.
While Markram's knock came at a stunning strike rate of 161.53, Stubbs outplayed his captain and racked up his runs at an eye-popping rate of 186.66 with the help of four fours and three sixes.
Chasing 205 to claim glory, Super Giants got off to a nightmarish start and were never in contention to chase the total down.
Sunrisers' left-arm speedster Marco Jansen was the wrecker-in-chief as he bagged a five-for and reduced the Super Giants' batting order to dust.
Super Giants eventually folded for 115 in 17 overs. They only had the biggest individual award to contend with as their power-packed performer Heinrich Klaasen was awarded the Player of the Tournament for his scintillating display. Klaasen notched up 447 runs in the entire season at an astounding strike rate of 207.90 and finished as the second-leading run-scorer after MI Cape Town's Ryan Rickleton (530 runs).
