Published: January 17, 2026 at 8:29 am
MI Cape Town revived their SA20 playoff chances with a three-wicket victory over Sunrisers Eastern Cape at Newlands, Cape Town, on Friday evening. The defending champions collected four valuable points to lift them to 14 points with their all-important final round-robin fixture against Sunrisers at St George’s Park on Sunday remaining.
MI Cape Town, however, missed out on the bonus point, which resulted in Pretoria Capitals (20 points) joining Sunrisers (24 points) and Paarl Royals (24 points) as the third team to advance to the playoffs.
The defending champions’ hopes now rest on Durban’s Super Giants and Joburg Super Kings not winning their remaining fixtures. Both those teams will be in action on Saturday which could determine MICT’s fate in what has been a torrid tournament. This was only their third win in nine matches, and second at home this season.
The home team were spurred on by a fifth successive sold-out Newlands crowd from the moment Trent Boult had the in-form Quinton de Kock caught behind the very first ball of the innings.
MI Cape Town maintained the pressure throughout with Boult rediscovering his form with 3/28 before Corbin Bosch closed out the innings with figures of 4/34.
All the Sunrisers batters struggled to adapt to a two-paced Newlands surface with only Marco Jansen striking the ball with any sort of freedom. The lanky allrounder stroked four sixes and three boundaries in his 23-ball 48 and along with a sedate 28 off 27 balls from James Coles, the Sunrisers posted 139/9 in their allotted 20 overs.
Jansen took his batting form straight into the MI Cape Town innings with the left-armer removing both Rassie van der Dussen and the in-form Ryan Rickelton in the Powerplay to provide Sunrisers with the start they would have been hoping for.
Sunrisers were 37 for 3 after the powerplay and then went boundary-less for the next four overs to reach the halfway stage on 57 on 3. Jordan Hermann (12) and Tristan Stubbs (4) were both dismissed cheaply and it was up to Jansen to lift Sunrisers to something they could defend.
He quickly proved he was up to the task. He sent the third ball he faced – a short one from Bosch – over long-on for six and the next – an attempted yorker – past the wicketkeeper for four. Jansen went on to smash three more sixes, all off his national team-mates. He cleared the ropes off George Linde and Kagiso Rabada and then sent another Bosch short ball over the railway stand and onto the train tracks for the innings’ biggest hit.
But that’s where Jansen’s fun ended. He tried to send Bosch’s next ball over deep midwicket but miscued and Jason Smith took a good catch, leaving Sunrisers 123 for 7 in the 18th.
Marco Jansen, Sunrisers Eastern Cape’s lanky allrounder, stroked four sixes and three boundaries in his 23-ball 48
With a relatively straightforward task of chasing at seven runs an over, MICT may not have needed to take too many risks but with a bonus point on their mind, the openers looked to force the issue and failed. In the third over, Rassie van der Dussen sent a Jansen ball that landed just outside off stump straight to Stubbs at mid-off and was the first to fall. Two overs later, Rickelton was unable to continue to build his case against de Kock when Jansen cramped him for room as he hit Muthusamy at mid-on. MICT were 19 for 2 in the fifth over.
But Reeza Hendricks (41 off 43 balls) dug his heels in to play the anchor role to ensure that despite MI Cape Town continuing to lose wickets, they would inch closer to the required total. Allrounder George Linde struck a breezy 31 off 18 balls and new import Kieron Pollard contributed 20 off 14, but still Sunrisers stayed in their fight.
It became tricky towards the end when Hendricks was dismissed off the final ball of the penultimate over, caught at deep cover off Anrich Nortje, leaving MI Cape Town requiring four runs off the final over.
For MI Cape Town and the Newlands faithful, Sunrisers allrounder Senuran Muthusamy (2/25) over-stepped to offer up Bosch a free hit to close out the game and keep the champions alive in the competition.
The four Player of the Match candidates were Corbin Bosch, Trent Boult, Reeza Hendricks and Marco Jansen with Bosch taking the honours.
Brief scores: Sunrisers Eastern Cape 139/9 in 20 overs (Marco Jansen 42; Corbin Bosch 4/34, Trent Boult 3/28) lost to MI Cape Town 140/7 in 20 overs (Reeza Hendricks 41, George Linde 31, Kieron Pollard 20; Marco Jansen 2/23, Senuran Muthusamy 2/25).
