That is an end to a sizzling SA20 2024. Another successful edition of franchise cricket under the leadership of Graeme Smith, the commissioner of the league. SUNRISERS EASTERN CAPE ARE THE UNDISPUTED CHAMPIONS OF THE SA20, WINNING THE TITLE TWICE IN TWO SEASONS.
For now, it's me, AkshayaKrishna Polya, signing off on behalf of my co-commentator, Deepak Prakash, who, alongside our scorer/analyst Raju Khariya, brought you all the live-action of the mouth-watering grand finale. We will meet again. Until then, its cheers!
Aiden Markram receives the trophy again. Sunrisers Eastern Cape are the CHAMPIONS OF SA20 2024. The whole team joins in front of the champion's boarding, and the celebration begins. The party will go on and on for nights and months. The players, one by one, lift the silverware. The team owner, Kavya Maran, joins the celebration for a couple of photographs as well.
Aiden Markram (Sunrisers Eastern Cape Captain): "Yeah, it's a great feeling. Obviously to be in the final was a proud moment for us as a team to have the opportunity to try to defend our title. And then the guys who rock up here tonight and play the game of cricket that they did is a testament to how hard they've been working.
Every game you really have to be at your best. As you've seen, anyone can beat anyone, and nice for us to have got some momentum through those middle stages of the competition and sort of carry that through to the back end. Ultimately, today was a fresh start and luckily we put together a good performance. Luckily we put in a good performance today. We were incredible on the field throughout the comp.
The bowlers sort of were the shining light for us and carried us quite a bit throughout the comp and then the guys with the bats sort of chipped in when they needed to, did their job at the right times, and managed to get us over the line in a few of the games. So massive team effort, massive squad effort.
Even those guys who didn't get a game played a massive role off the field for us, and once again, incredibly proud of this group. The captaincy was made easy by this group of people. Great group of guys that are fully invested in the best interest of the team, and are happy to fight tooth and nail out there on the park. And you can't ask for more. Whatever happens after that, you can sleep well at night."
Sunrisers Eastern Cape collect the Champions medals.
Keshav Maharaj (Durban's Super Giants Captain): "Yeah, definitely. If you ask me at the start of the tournament about getting to the final, I would probably take it. We have played well in this tournament. It is a very good turnaround for us from last season. Proud of the guys for the way they have played. Obviously, we have got beaten by the better side of the day. They executed a lot better than we did. We will take the learnings to the next season.
Probably 20-30 runs too many. We were quite sloppy on the field as well, which didn't help either. We felt it was a good wicket, but losing wickets doesn't help chasing in excess of 200. Full credit goes to Sunrisers Eastern Cape.
Our coaching staff have put in a hard effort, the owners as well. Boys can be proud of what they've achieved. They have been fantastic all tournament. The journey has been amazing. Faith and trust that's been put in me, I'm grateful for it. Thank you to the fans who've come out and supported us in numbers."
Durban's Super Giants collect the runners up medals.