Gqeberha, Feb 2 (IANS): Sunrisers Eastern Cape returned to winning ways at St George’s Park with a 48-run victory over Paarl Royals and sealed third place in the SA20 Season 3 standings.

The defending back-to-back champions will meet Joburg Super Kings in the Eliminator at Centurion on Wednesday.

Their captain Aiden Markram won the toss and elected to bat against Royals, who were once again captained by Bjorn Fortuin, and were much changed. with new-dad David Miller recovering from a niggle too. Australian replacement signing Mitchell Owen went straight into the Playing XI and Rookie Dewan Marais was also handed a debut. With Dinesh Karthik rested, Lhuan-dre Pretorius took the gloves today.

Sunrisers posted 148/8, courtesy of Jordan Hermann’s 53 off 38 balls, and Tristan Stubbs’ 43 off 27 balls. Stubbs smashed 23 runs in the final over delivered by Royals’ new Australian recruit Mitchell Owen.

Sunrisers coach Adrian Birrell will certainly be pleased with the fact that two of the team’s young batting stars are hitting form ahead of the all-important playoffs stages.

The Sunrisers’ seamers have been highly effective at St George’s Park and they delivered once more with the competition’s leading wicket-taker Marco Jansen (3-22) and Craig Overton (3-15) claiming six wickets between them to rout the Royals for just 100.