Pretoria Capitals’ youthful duo Bryce Parsons and Dewald Brevis powered the Pretoria Capitals to a seven-wicket victory over top-ranked Sunrisers Eastern Cape in Qualifier 1 at Kingsmead to book their place in the Betway SA20 Season 4 Final.
Parsons (60 off 44 balls, 4×4, 2×6) delivered a dream all-round performance with a magical spell of 3/10 to restrict Sunrisers to 170/7 before forming a 91-run partnership with Brevis to guide Capitals home.
Brevis delivered on his promise with an electrifying 38-ball 75, which included four boundaries and an amazing seven sixes.
Three of the maximums were consecutive strikes that flew deep into the stands that sent the Capitals to their first final since the inaugural showpiece back in 2023.
Sunrisers will now head to Johannesburg to face the winner of the Eliminator at the Wanderers on Friday evening.
The two-time champions had begun Qualifier 1 in a positive fashion after captain Tristan Stubbs won the toss and elected to bat. Quinton de Kock’s early departure was offset through an 81-run second wicket partnership between Jonny Bairstow and Jordan Hermann to see Sunrisers to 112/1 after 12 overs.
But that’s when Capitals captain Keshav Maharaj (2/24) struck by exacting revenge on Bairstow (50 off 36 balls, 6×4, 1×6) when he trapped the Englishman plumb in front. Bairstow had struck Maharaj for 34 runs in a single over at Centurion during the group match.
Bairstow was soon followed by Hermann (41 off 30 balls) which formed part of a collapse that saw the Sunrisers lose four wickets for just 22 runs.
Parsons was the unlikely chief destroyer during this period as he picked up vital wickets to stem the run flow.
The four Player of the Match candidates were Jonny Bairstow, Dewald Brevis, Keshav Maharaj, Bryce Parsons with the Parsons winning 49.3% of the fan vote.
Capitals’ top-order has struggled throughout the group matches to lay a platform for their powerful hitters lower down the order and once again lost an early wicket when Shai Hope was caught behind off Lewis Gregory.
But Connor Esterhuizen (22 off 19 balls) dropped anchor with Parsons to form a 46-run partnership for the second wicket that allowed Brevis to deliver what could be the defining innings of his Betway SA20 career.
POST-MATCH AWARDS
- Player of the Match: Bryce Parsons (Pretoria Capitals)
- It’s raining sixes match award: Dewald Brevis (Pretoria Capitals – 7 sixes)
- Switch Game Changer of the Match: Bryce Parsons (Pretoria Capitals)
- Absa Moneyball Saver: Anrich Nortje (Sunrisers Eastern Cape – 10 dot balls)
- DP World Dispatch of the Day: Dewald Brevis (Pretoria Capitals)
