We start knockout cricket in the SA20 2025 season on Wednesday when the teams who finished third and fourth in the table play the Eliminator in Centurion when the Sunrisers Eastern Cape take on the Joburg Super Kings.
The winners of this one will progress to Qualifier 2 to face off against the Paarl Royals while the losers will be done for the season and watching the rest of the competition on their sofas so there is plenty on the line here.
Sunrisers Eastern Cape
The defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape will have wanted to have finished the league phase of the competition higher than third place in the table but at least it has given them a crack at winning the title for a third time. After three matches that opportunity certainly wasn’t an inevitability as they failed to win any of those games and took heavy beatings in all of them. They did get themselves together though and from there a third placed finish was highly credible.
The Eastern Cape have once again largely won their matches because of a decent bowling attack. They are the sort of side who don’t need to put huge totals on the board but when they do then they can have much more confidence of winning. The other thing they are is a team who can hold their nerve in tight matches. They have been under more pressure than most in this competition given their start to the season so playing with added scrutiny is second nature to them now, which has to be an advantage in a knockout match.
Joburg Super Kings
The Joburg Super Kings probably would have expected to finish higher than fourth place in the table going into the season but the big problem that they have had is an insane number of injuries. Fortunately for them, if injuries can ever be that, they came along at the start of the campaign when the rain was doing the rounds so it didn’t hinder them as much as it might have and they have been able to use the time when they weren’t on the field to come up with other combinations which have worked the longer the season has gone on.
The Super Kings are another side who have relied on their bowlers more than you would have expected going into the season. They have had to do that a little more than usual though because the pitches at The Wanderers haven’t been as flat as they normally are. If there is a concern for the Super Kings it would be that only two batters have more than 200 runs this season and they are the openers so if one or both of those fail the big question is do they have enough in reserve to come out with the goods.
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Key Players
You would imagine that if the Sunrisers Eastern Cape are going to progress from this match that Marco Jansen is going to be a big player for them. His new ball spell could be the game given the shortage of runs down the Super Kings’ order but he could be useful with the bat too.
Hardus Viljoen was added to the Joburg XI once all the injuries started coming along but in just seven matches he has picked up 12 wickets at an economy of 7.70 per over so he has really delivered. If he can get stuck into the Sunrisers order then Joburg will be well on their way.
Betting
I’m a little bit surprised that the Sunrisers Eastern Cape are the outsiders for this match given their record in the competition and the fact that they finished higher in the table than the Joburg Super Kings and if I wasn’t already on the orange army outright I would probably get involved in them here but there is no need to do that with my money already invested so I’m going to look elsewhere for a bet which here in Centurion on the Highveld the sixes has to be the play.
In fairness, these two batting units haven’t really fired like they can do but in the last week or two as the weather has improved the important players have come to the party and on a small ground like this where the ball flies a country mile we should be seeing plenty of sixes. The wickets at SuperSport Park were tricky to begin with but in two of the last three the first innings scores have been 212/5 and 222/3 so they are starting to flatten out and that should lead to these two batting units being able to enjoy themselves. I like over 14.5 sixes here.
Tips
Back Over 14.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
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