The final round of matches in the SA20 2025 regular season begins in a double header of action in the competition on Saturday, one which begins at the home of the champions as the Sunrisers Eastern Cape host the Paarl Royals.
The Royals already know whatever happens here that they will be in the Qualifier next week but if the Sunrisers are to definitely be in the Eliminator they have to win this match. Anything else and they’ll be relying on others.
Sunrisers Eastern Cape
This certainly hasn’t been the title defence that the Sunrisers Eastern Cape would have wanted so far but the good thing for them is they are still in control of their own destiny. They go into this match knowing that if they can find four wins in the next week or so then they will complete the three-peat and with the first of those matches on home soil they will be confident that they can at least do what is needed to ensure they play knockout cricket next week.
Having lost their first three matches, for the Sunrisers to still be in control of their own destiny is quite something. They have won four of their last six matches with their bowlers really coming back to the fore in that time but they have lost their last two games where their batting out of nowhere have mysteriously disappeared. They need to get back to putting up competitive totals because 118 and 107, which they have posted in their last two matches, certainly isn’t going to cut it.
Paarl Royals
It has been completely the opposite for the Paarl Royals this season. Whereas the Sunrisers Eastern Cape went into the campaign as genuine contenders to win the title, the Royals were rated as rank outsiders and were expected to be eliminated from contention already. That certainly hasn’t been the case though. Although they were knocked from top spot by MI Cape Town on Friday evening, the Royals know that whatever happens here they will remain here in Gqeberha for the Qualifier 1 match.
That means that the Royals will have two goes at making the final should they need them so they are in a really good position going into this final weekend of the regular season. They aren’t quite in as good a position with their squad though because injuries are starting to bite them at the wrong time. It impacted their batting against the Joburg Super Kings last time out and having lost that match, Paarl will be keen to win here so that they don’t take successive defeats into the finals with them.
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Key Players
Tristan Stubbs has had a bit of an in and out competition but when he has batted well the Sunrisers Eastern Cape have generally gone pretty well so they could do with a big knock from their South Africa international here.
Paarl Royals have signed Mitch Owen to replace Joe Root and the man who fired the Hobart Hurricanes to a win in the Big Bash League is expected to make his debut here. He and Paarl will hope that he makes a big initial impression.
Betting
It is hard to see how this match is going to be a high scoring game. Sunrisers Eastern Cape are struggling with the bat and have done all season. Their last two scores have been 107 and 118 and in five of their matches they have scored less than 120 and in another they failed to score 150. Paarl Royals aren’t the most free scoring and now they have to do without Joe Root, although to be fair if Mitch Owen comes in and picks up where he left off in the Big Bash League that would help.
Both of these attacks have plenty of spin bowling in their ranks and a decent death bowler which certainly helps. Paarl might not really care what happens here because there is nothing on it for them whereas Sunrisers just want to win to book their spot in the finals. The run line for this one is 313.5 and the only time that was covered was when there was 316 runs. This isn’t a high scoring ground and these batting units aren’t in great form so I think the under is the way to go here.
Tips
Back Under 313.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
