Savour victory, then quickly refocus — Sunrisers’ Birrell
“We must celebrate our wins and we must celebrate this win, then bank it and focus on the next game.”
Those were the words of Sunrisers Eastern Cape head coach Adrian Birrell at the post-match debrief after his side humiliated the Pretoria Capitals by nine wickets in front of a boisterous St George’s Park crowd in Gqeberha on Monday.
The teams clash again when they contest the reverse fixture at SuperSport Park, Centurion, today, starting at 5.30pm.
Having won the toss and deciding to bowl first on a sporting pitch, Birrell’s men were destructive as their fourpronged pace attack tore apart the Capitals’ line-up, restricting them to 52 all out, the lowest score in the tournament’s twoyear existence.
Scoring the 53 runs needed in just 6.5 overs, the Sunrisers lost one wicket, that of Dawid Malan, as Tom Abell and Jordan Hermann shared a halfcentury partnership to see them over the line.
The bonus point victory moved them into second place with 15 points.
Durban’s Super Giants beat MI Cape Town by 36 runs on
Tuesday to move to the top on 18 points.
“It was an awesome display of proper bowling,” Birrell told his troops in a reel posted on the team’s Instagram page.
“We won the toss, which was a good start and that southerly wind paid dividends, it did a bit and our bowlers were right on the money.
“I’ve been involved in T20 cricket for a long time and I have never been involved in a game like this. Perhaps the lowest was a 90 or a 100, but not 52, so it’s a once-off, let’s enjoy it for what it is.
“But we have to respect the game of cricket because we are halfway in the tournament and in the next game we have to be right on it from the word go.”
Ottniel Baartman, who was the star of the show against the Sky Blues, taking four wickets for 12 runs from 3.3 overs, expressed similar sentiments.
The Dolphins man, who has 12 wickets, said though the Sunrisers’ victory was well-deserved, the aim was to try to replicate the performance on the road.
“It [the win] will help a little bit, we will probably face different scenarios and a different surface,” he said.
“We know that when going up the country, if the pitches flatten out it gets a bit easier to bat for us it will be about adapting to conditions and taking it from there.
“We have to stick to our strengths, and what has been working for us in the last few games.
“Conditions on the day and how we can adapt to it will be an important part of the outcome of the match,” Baartman said.
The right arm quick believed there was room for improvement.
“We didn’t play 20 overs today [Monday] so we cannot say precisely what or where to improve.
“Nothing will change on our side, perhaps lines and lengths, but the execution remains the same,” he said.