Sunrisers Eastern Cape, one of the six franchises that will be seen in action in the inaugural edition of the South Africa T20 League (SA20), managed to almost put together a balanced squad at the auction on Monday, September 19.
Alongside Pretoria Capitals, Eastern Cape had the highest purse ahead of the auction and they entered the same with R 28.05 million. Heading into the auction with such a heavy purse was meant to give them an upper hand at the auction, and that's how it eventually unfolded. They bid enthusiastically for some of the prominent names available at the auction.
Tristan Stubbs was the most expensive buy at the auction
The main highlight of their bidding was their extremely intense struggle with MI Cape Town in pursuit of one of South Africa's young sensations Tristan Stubbs. They went hell for leather to get Stubbs and eventually signed him for a hefty 9.2 Million Rand which eventually turned out to be the most overwhelming bid at the auction on Monday.
In addition to Stubbs, Eastern Cape also managed to rope in another South African youngster in Marco Jansen, who has been making headlines big enough lately by virtue of his performances to get noticed. The franchise brought him in via a mouth-watering paycheck of 6.10 million Rand.
Another intriguing buy for the Eastern Cape at the auction turned out to be Sisanda Magala. Magala is rated pretty highly for his death bowling prowess in South Africa's domestic t20 circuit.
Hence, he was rewarded for the same as Sunrisers made him their own by paying 5.4 million Rand at the auction. In addition to his bowling ability, Magala also has the potential to smash the ball hard coming lower down the order and hence can be really handy in crunch situations.
Their final buy for the evening turned out to be England's, Tom Abell. They bought him at his base price of 8,50,000 Rand. Notably, Sunrisers had already included Aiden Markram and Ottniel Baartman during the draft process prior to the auction.
Here is the full squad of the Paarl Royals for the inaugural season of the SA20 league:
Aiden Markram, Ottneil Baartman, Marco Jansen, Tristan Stubbs, Sisanda Magala, Junaid Dawood, Mason Crane, Jon-Jon Smuts, Jordan Cox, Adam Rossington, Roelof van der Merwe, Marques Ackerman, James Fuller, Brydon Carse, Sarel Erwee, Aya Gqamane, Tom Abell
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