Sunrisers Eastern Cape flex all-round muscles to eliminate holders MI Cape Town

Defending champions MI Cape Town were shown the door by the only SA20 franchise more successful than them - Sunrisers Eastern Cape - in a Sunday afternoon fixture at the St George's Park in Gqeberha. Even in an abysmal season that began with five straight losses, MI CT went into the game in the hope of pushing their survival along, but enjoyed no such luck against the table-toppers. SEC tied them down to just 148/6, with nearly half of that coming from Reeza Hendricks's bat (70* off 44). Quinton de Kock and Reeza Hendricks then heralded the chase with half-centuries and a 109-run stand that brought down the curtains on the holders.

Two evenings ago, Chris Green was turning his arm over for Sydney Thunder in the local derby in front of packed crowds. By Sunday, he switched continents, travelling 1000s of miles to put on the orange of the Sunrisers. He didn't just put it on, he shone through with it - a three-wicket haul that effectively dismantled MI CT and with it their hopes of a big total after being asked to bat first. Tristan Stubbs turned to the off-spinner in the PowerPlay and reaped instant dividends.

He trapped the league's best batter of the season - Ryan Rickelton - leg before in the fourth over. Stubbs chose to spread out his overs and only summoned him next in the 10th over, when a second-wicket partnership between Hendricks and Rassie van der Dussen was starting to catch pace. Green put an end to that with a sharply turning delivery that beat van der Dussen's bat and pad to knock back the stumps.

SEC's left-arm spinner James Coles then became an outlier. He befuddled Nicholas Pooran, a batter brutally prolific against his ilk in the T20 format. The MI CT captain missed an attempted slog sweep and got bowled for just two. Right before the death overs, Stubbs threw the ball to Green one more time in search of an immediate wicket, and actually got it. But it came after George Linde carted the spinner for three successive sixes. Linde went for a fourth one in the same over and found the SEC captain at long on. The little fllip from Linde (30 off 17) gave the MI CT bowlers a total to bowl with, or so they would have ascertained heading in at the break.

De Kock and Breetzke made mincemeat of those expectations. Kagiso Rabada's dismissal of Jonny Bairstow brought the two South Africans together for the century-stand, which was steady but not necessarily fast-paced. They dragged the chase deep enough and yet the equation read 40 off 24 deliveries. In a desperate last throw of a die, Pooran unleashed Trent Boult for what was his last over in search of a breakthrough.

He didn't get it, and the two batters took away 15 from the target. Corbin Bosch then came back and ruffled feathers with de Kock's wicket in an eight-run over. When Rabada came back, 17 were needed of 12. Jordan Hermann and Breetzke took him down in a 12-run penultimate over. Bosch tried to cause a few more flutters in the final over where only five were needed. But even the wicket of Breetzke then, wasn't enough to turn the tide.

Brief Scores: MI Cape Town 148/6 in 20 overs (Reeza Hendricks 70, George Linde 30; Chris Green 3-29) lost to Sunrisers Eastern Cape 149/3 in 19.5 overs (Matthew Breetzke 66, Quinton de Kock 56; Corbin Bosch 2-29) by 7 wickets