The Pretoria Capitals were relieved to avoid an extra play-off, according to middle-order batter Dewald Brevis, after they qualified for the SA20 final with a seven-wicket win over Sunrisers Eastern Cape in Durban on Wednesday night.
Set a target of 171 runs to win in their qualifier match, the Pretoria side reached 172/3 with nine balls to spare to book their place in the trophy decider, with Brevis bashing 75 runs off just 38 balls and sharing a match-winning 91-run stand with Bryce Parsons (60 off 44) for the third wicket.
While the Capitals progressed to the final in Cape Town on Sunday, the Sunrisers were set to turn out in another qualifier play-off against either the Paarl Royals or the Joburg Super Kings at the Wanderers on Friday (5.30pm start).
“It’s really nice to know we’re going straight into the finals. We’ve got some time to recover and prepare,” Brevis said.
“I’m very proud of the boys. It was a team effort. We all fought out there.”
Having won six of their 11 games in the tournament thus far, Brevis felt the Capitals could still improve this weekend as they looked to lift the SA20 trophy for the first time.
“In general, I still believe our team can look for more one percenters,” said the big-hitting batter.
“We’ve played a good game but there’s place to improve and it’s super exciting to know that… so we’ll just have to make sure we look after the small things (in the final) and give it our best.”
No drastic changes for Sunrisers
Meanwhile, Sunrisers coach Russell Domingo said the two-time former champions were not too concerned, despite the defeat.
He was pleased that they had another chance to reach their fourth successive SA20 final, and he felt they would have a slight advantage on Friday. With their opposition playing an eliminator clash in Centurion on Thursday, they had less time to recover.
Domingo did admit that they could still work on some areas, but he said they wouldn’t make any dramatic changes ahead of their crunch clash today.
“The players know where we sort of came short this evening (against the Capitals). We know the areas we need to get better at. The coaches as well, there are certain things we can maybe do a little bit differently,” he said.
“So there are good lessons for us, but we know we’re a quality side and we’ve played really good cricket… so we won’t do anything drastic, nothing major, we’ll just do a little bit of tinkering here and there.”
