The Eastern Cape Sunrisers are back in the SA20 conversation after they registered their second straight victory against MI Cape Town at Newlands on Wednesday.

After a poor start to their SA20 campaign, losing twice to the Pretoria Capitals, the Eastern Cape Sunrisers looked buried and dead.

However, in this week alone, they have revived their campaign by defeating MI Cape Town twice and getting themselves back in the running.

The two-wicket victory meant that the side from Gqeberha moved up to the fifth spot on the log, tied at eight points with the Durban Super Giants and the Joburg Super Kings.

According to paceman Marco Jansen, who scored 66 runs off 27 balls in the second innings, the Sunrisers developed a “never say die” attitude, which has helped them get back to winning ways after losing their first two matches of the tournament.

“After those first two games, the whole chat was about not giving up and still trying to stay in the fight because, as we saw today in the match, anything can happen,” said Jansen.

“I’m not sure how much we needed, but it wasn’t in our favor – and one over changed everything.”

“The conversation was just to stay in it, whether we’re behind or ahead, and have that never-say-die attitude.”

Jansen’s spell changed the trajectory of the game, and when he scored 28 runs off Rashid Khan later in the innings, momentum started to shift.

He explained his thought process during that game-changing over.

“Honestly, I didn’t know what to do in that over,” he laughed.

“I knew we at least needed two overs of 20 runs to give us a chance, and then after I hit that first ball, I don’t know, I just told myself, “Okay, if it’s there, I’m going for it, and if I go out, at least we tried, and luckily it paid off quite well.”

Jansen, who has featured for the Proteas in all three formats and has been selected for the upcoming ODI series against England, admits that he’s been working hard on his batting, trying to become an ultimate all-rounder.

“Ever since I came into this level, the goal was to be an all-rounder,” said Jansen

“So yeah, it took a lot of time, and I’m still working on a lot of things. I’m just happy that things are paying off a little bit now.”

“Bowling is my primary skill, but I love batting.”

“There’s a lot of things personally I think I can work on but at the moment luckily I’m finding a way to make it work”