Conway hit an unbeaten 76 in the chase. © Sportzpics A ruthless all-round performance from Joburg Super Kings saw them register a thumping nine-wicket win over Sunrisers Eastern Cape at the Wanderers on Sunday (January 26). Opting to bowl, Lutho Sipamla (3-13) set the tone with a fiery new-ball spell while Hardus Viljoen (4-24) triggered a sensational collapse at the death as the visitors were rolled over for a paltry total of 118. Devon Conway (76*) then led the chase, which the hosts completed with six overs to spare, thereby gaining a bonus point as well. The loss also ended Sunrisers’ four-game winning streak. It didn’t seem like the game would be such a one-sided contest after the first glimpse of the pitch, which appeared to be a good surface to bat on. However, like all other tracks at the venue, the new ball was a challenge and Sunrisers once again caved in through injudicious shot selection and fragile technique. Zak Crawley was lucky to survive a first-ball duck in the return fixture few days ago as Sipamla had overstepped but got no such favours this time. A pacy outswinger found the edge that was snaffled at first slip, setting the tone for Super Kings’ dominance. Tom Abell fell in the same over, the first of the game, as he dragged one on, leaving the tourists at 0/2. Jordan Hermann, promoted to no.4, was the next to fall as Sipamla had him nicking off in his next over. Viljoen then sent Aiden Markram for a golden duck as Sunrisers found themselves at 17/4 inside the powerplay. Amidst the carnage, David Bedingham (48 off 40) got going with a few fluent boundaries and he got some support from Tristan Stubbs (37 off 38) with the latter taking his time for a major part of the partnership. It meant that Bedingham had to do the heavy-lifting to up the rate and that resulted in his downfall, miscuing Imran Tahir to long-off. The 57-run stand had, gave Sunrisers some respite and Stubbs combined for another partnership with Marco Jansen (22 off 18). The pair added 41 at a slightly better pace but the excessive loss of wickets upfront meant that they had to delay their charge towards a competitive total. Ultimately, the charge never came as Jansen fell to a soft dismissal and Stubbs was run out the very next ball. Beyers Swanepoel and Ottniel Baartman didn’t trouble the scorers too much as Sunrisers lost their last five wickets for just three runs. The only way the defending champions could have made a game of this score was to pick up a cluster of wickets in the powerplay. Conway along with Faf du Plessis ensured that didn’t happen although the latter fell towards the end of the six-over mark. Conway carried on and stitched a match-sealing stand of 85 with Wihan Lubbe (25 off 17) as the home side got the job done with elan. To be fair to the Sunrisers, they were at least 50 runs short of a competitive total. Brief scores: Sunrisers Eastern Cape 118 all out in 19 overs (David Bedingham 48; Hardus Viljoen 4-24, Lutho Sipamla 3-13) lost to Joburg Super Kings 119/1 in 14 overs (Devon Conway 76*, Wihan Lubbe 25*) by nine wickets.
