Sunrisers Eastern Cape start their celebrations with the trophy lift, and with that, the SA20 2025-26 season comes to an end! A season filled with emotions, and a final fitting of the tournament! Join us back tomorrow as we continue to bring you all the LIVE action from around the world!
Until then, this is Anirudh Modi, signing off along with my colleagues Pritam Dey, Manan Mehta, and Paras Yadav! See you at the next one!
Tristan Stubbs (Sunrisers Eastern Cape Captain): "I am so stoked, can't explain it! I don't know how we did it, but so much like we actually did a tough thing. Me and Matty were calm, but also panicking.
We know we bat well together, and we kept looking for an over to get momentum, and it came in the 16th. We ran with it, and funny things happen underpressure. I have really enjoyed captaincy; we had a great group to work with. We planned well, and the bowling attack was experienced. Me and Quinny were always chatting about how to use the bowlers, and everyone was amazing through the season.
We keep it simple; we tell the local boys at the start, just give the overseas guys their best. Adi puts us all together, and it's a well-run management team. We have a pretty good fans who back us all the way. They are awesome."
Sunrisers Eastern Cape collect the winners' medals and cheque! Adi Birrell collects the medal, and captain Tristan Stubbs collects the cheque!
Keshav Maharaj (Pretoria Capitals Captain): "Yeah, disappointing to say the least. Sixteen for four, but you know. Yeah, I suppose the two batters were in and got set. Look, at the end of it all, it’s disappointing to come this far. We’ve had great support from the coach and the fans, both away and at home, which I must commend them for. It’s been a very tough season, but you still have that heartbreak of coming so close yet so far.
(On possible improvements) Yeah, I think obviously the starts that we get from both bat and ball are something that we’re going to have to look at going forward. But on the plus side, the middle order came to the party the way they have and put us in a position to compete for the final. You’ve got to look at that and really take a lot of inspiration from it. Look, it’s a could-have, should-have, would-have type of situation. The boys were hurt for a bit. Like you said, sixteen for four is not always chased down in this sort of situation, especially when you feel you had your hands on it. But it just proves that in T20 cricket, you can never take things for granted — it’s not over till it’s over.
(On the overall campaign this season) Yeah, obviously, like I said, I’m not someone who dwells on the negatives. We do identify them and look at where we can get better. But I think in the last eight games, we won five, so we can draw a lot of inspiration from that — especially in pressure moments and games we needed to win. You know, we found ways to win — seven for five, defending 140 in Paarl, defending 150 over here against MI Cape Town. So there’s a lot of inspiration to be taken from that. But we do have to rectify the mistakes if we want to compete with the best and win trophies as a unit."
Pretoria Capitals collect their runners-up momento and cheque! An incredible effort through the season, but they fall short at the final hurdle.
Quinton de Kock (Player of the season): "Had a great season, after the auction we knew we had a great team on and off the field. Great bunch of boys, and we fought hard for the trophy. Some young boys showed grit today, and playing that way in the final, I am really impressed.
To be fair, it's Tristan's first time captaining, and he would always need my help, haha. I just try to do what I can to help the youngsters.
I am happy to be back and playing cricket again for the country. I will continue to do it for as long as I can."
Player of the season: Quinton de Kock
Batter of the season:Quinton de Kock (390 runs)
Ottneil Baartman (Paarl Royals): "Yeah most definitely, Sunrisers was a special group of players. I enjoyed my time there but now I am with Paarl.
Just enjoying my cricket as much as possible. Now with Paarl and I am trying to lead the attack from a bowling point of view. We have many young bowlers in our group so just trying to guide them around."
Bowler of the season:Ottneil Baartman (20 wickets)