Quinton de Kock blazed his way to 77 off just 47 balls in Sunrisers Eastern Cape's 48-run bonus point win over Pretoria Capitals in the SA20 match at St George's Park.
The victory on Monday propelled the Sunrisers to top of the SA20 table with 10 points, while the Capitals, coached by India legend Sourav Ganguly, remain winless after two matches.
The Gqeberha locals came out in thousands to deck South Africa's oldest Test venue in a sea of orange for the first home game of Season 4 with the iconic brass band getting everyone in the festive spirit to deliver yet another memorable SA20 night.
De Kock gave them plenty to cheer for, smashing five fours and six sixes in his 77-run knock. The left-hander struck the ball sweetly from the outset with a couple of rasping lofted cover drives interspersed with powerful pull shots.
Matthew Breetzke (52 off 33 balls, 7x4, 1x6) was the perfect partner for De Kock after the early departure of Jonny Bairstow with the pair putting together an electrifying 116-run partnership off just 70 balls.
That laid the platform for the in-form Jordan Hermann (37 off 20 balls, 5x4, 1x6) to unleash a series of conventional and reverse sweeps that pushed Sunrisers to an impressive 188 for 6.
{{/usCountry}}That laid the platform for the in-form Jordan Hermann (37 off 20 balls, 5x4, 1x6) to unleash a series of conventional and reverse sweeps that pushed Sunrisers to an impressive 188 for 6.
{{/usCountry}}The total proved way beyond the reach of the Capitals with the Sunrisers unleashing their three-pronged pace arsenal of Marco Jansen, Adam Milne and Anrich Nortje.
Jansen required just six balls to strike the first blow when he removed Capitals opener Bryce Parsons with a rasping delivery that the left-hander could only fend off to De Kock behind the stumps.
The Kiwi Express Milne (4/25) was next in the act when he dismissed West Indian Shai Hope (36 off 19 balls) just as the batter threatened to build an innings of substance.
But the major breakthrough was left to Lewis Gregory when the Sunrisers all-rounder flummoxed Dewald Brevis (12 off five balls) into taking on the longest boundary in the ground where Breetzke lay in wait to take a comfortable catch.
The Capitals’ innings disintegrated from thereon with Milne running through the visitors’ tail, while left-arm spinner Senuran Muthusamy delivered arguably the ball of the night to clean bowl a well-set Will Smeed (35 off 27 balls, 4x4, 1x6).