Sunrisers Eastern Cape vs Paarl Royals, Qualifier 2, SA20, 2025-26 - Commentary

Paarl Royals have failed to reach the final for the fourth season in a row. They have been beaten in the semis in season 1, then the Eliminator in season 2 and twice in Qualifer 2 - last year and this year by SEC. They again fail to take that one step forward. SEC on the other hand are into their fourth final, they have already won this tournament twice and lost the final last year. The final of this season will be a repeat of season 1 when PC met SEC. We will be there for that one. For now that's it from here. It's time to escape. Bye bye.

James Coles | Player of the Match: Yeah, I mean, that's gone a bit better than expected, but, yeah, and I just chuffed we got to the final. I guess, fortunately, we got to see what the pitch was doing, bowling first and bowling on it. I just stuck to a plan when I got in and committed fully, and then luckily it just came off today. (on bowling alongside Muthusamy) Yeah, he's been unbelievable to bowl behind. Yeah, just watching him, I was at long-on, watching him go about his business was pretty impressive. So, yeah, he's pretty good to watch. (on the crowd support) Yeah, no, they've been amazing all trip. We had it last game, they were singing to us when we did our lap of honour. Yeah, I couldn't thank them enough for their support.

Tristan Stubbs | SEC captain: Yeah, I'm really proud of the boys. The performance we put out there today was awesome. And I think the group as a whole did really well today. Yeah, we would have bowled purely because we didn't know what a good score would have been. And I think it gave a bit for the bowlers. Definitely spun a bit in the first innings. And then the way the boys played, you sort of had to do that in a niggly chase, just go hard up front. (on Muthusamy) Yeah, I think if he could take this wicket everywhere, it'd be great. No, but they're all outstanding. The way Marco set the tone with Sipeps. And then everyone who came on did magnificently. Yeah, I think the way Quinny batted sort of broke the chase from the start. Often you play these games and you fool around and then the pressure builds. But the way they did, everyone sort of joined in. Colesy, Breetzke, they were magnificent. Yeah, I think we, as I said at the start, we just try and have the best fun on and off the field. And fortunately, it's got us to four finals.

Dan Lawrence | Paarl Royals stand-in skipper: As I could see it (the wicket) was quite dry, so was hoping to get some runs on the board and hopefully it kept spinning later. I think it was pretty hard to control what to do on that surface, to be honest. It wasn’t a particularly good one. Kyle played a brilliant innings to get 50 and get us to some sort of a score. When we got a chance to bowl, we tried a few things and unfortunately it didn’t work. (reflections on the whole season) When you go back to the very first game when we got bowled out for 49, if you said to us that we’d be playing in the semi-final, we’d have been over the moon. Obviously gutted not to go over the line today, and it was one of those fixtures where nothing went our way. (message to the fans) At our home ground it’s always amazing, and for all the fans that came here and supported today, thank you so much. It’s a brilliant family to be a part of.

20:20 Local Time, 18:20 GMT, 23:50 IST: Celebrations in the SEC camp as Kaviya Maran - the CEO of Sunrisers hugs her dad, Kalanithi. They are all smiles as are the others in their camp inside the Bull Ring. What an emphatic chase this is. Paarl started with Fortuin but de Kock and Bairstow took 3 fours to start on a fine note. Fortuin came back to dismiss both of them in his 2nd over but Jordan Hermann timed the ball well before falling to Baartman. Then it was all James Coles who played stunning strokes. He raced away to a 19-ball 45 and the end came quite quickly. Probably the pitch played better in the 2nd innings and lot of the balls were skidding on. End of a pretty good campaign for Paarl especially after being bowled out for 49 in the first game. But tonight they were well short with the bat and ball. Stay tuned for the post-match stuff...