On Wednesday 5 February the Sunrisers Eastern Cape played the Joburg Super Kings in the first eliminator match at SuperSport Park Centurion. The winner will face the Paarl Royals in the second qualifier at Supersport Park on Thursday. 

The Super Kings won the toss and elected to bowl first.

David Beddingham initially got the Sunrisers off to a blistering start by scoring a quick fire 27 off 14 balls before Faf du Plessis took an amazing catch off the bowling of Tahir to dismiss him.

Wickets regularly fell throughout the first innings before Tristan Stubbs joined Aiden Markram at the wicket where they put on 56 runs off 43 balls to help push the Sunrisers to a total of 184 for the loss of 6 wickets.

Markram scored an impressive 62 runs not out off 40 balls where he judged length particularly well. His innings featured shots such as late cuts to spinners, great cover drives and a pull shot for six.

Stubbs scored an impressive 26 runs off 21 balls before getting caught by Wihan Lubbe off the bowling of Tahir. 

Aside from playing an impressive switch hit and a few other boundaries he also rotated the strike really well.

Marco Jansen once again showed his ability with the bat by scoring an impressive 23 runs off 12 balls where he hit 2 Sixes and 2 Fours. His long reach once again proved to be effective when he drove bowlers like Sipamla for six.

Notable performers for the Super Kings with the ball included: Hardus Viljoen and Imran Tahir.

Hardus Viljoen took 2 wickets for 37 runs off his 4 over dismissing Jordan Hermann and Marco Jansen respectively.

Imran Tahir took 2 wickets for 21 runs off his 4 overs dismissing Beddingham and Stubbs.

The Super Kings were required to chase 185 runs off their 20 overs to win the match with some pundits saying that the lack of an extra spinner could potentially cost the Sunrisers the match.

Devon Conway and Faf Du Plessis put on 40 runs off 26 balls for the first wicket before Devon Conway got our caught behind off  Jansen where he scored 30 runs off 20 balls.

Faf du Plessis soon followed by mis-timing a cross bat shot and hitting the ball straight to Aiden Markram who was at Long-Off. He scored 19 runs off 18 balls.

English batsmen Jonny Bairstow offered some resistance by scoring an 37 runs off 17 balls. He hit 3 Sixes and 3 Fours before getting bowled by Liam Dawson after mis-timing a reverse sweep. Throughout his innings he played some spectacular pull shots through the leg side.

Some notable performers for the Sunrisers bowlers included: Craig Overton, Ottniel Baartman and Liam Dawson.

Overton took 2 wickets for 20 runs off his 4 overs dismissing Wihan Lubbe (after reviewing a caught behind) and Moeen Ali.

Ottniel Baartman took 2 wickets for 25 runs off his 4 overs by dismissing Faf Du Plessis and Hardus Viljoen.

Liam Dawson took 2 wickets for 35 runs off his 4 overs. Dawson picked up the key wickets of King and Bairstow.

The Sunrisers won the match by 32 runs and they will face the Paarl Royals in the 2nd qualifier at Centurion on Thursday.