Former South Africa speedster Dale Steyn who retired from the international scene with 439 Test wickets, sees the next all-format Proteas captain in star batter Aiden Markram, who has led the Sunrisers Eastern Cape to become the only team in the SA20 tournament to make back-to-back appearances in the finale.
During the inaugural SA20 edition last year, Aiden Markram’s Eastern Cape side defeated Wayne Parnell’s Pretoria Capitals by 4 wickets to engrave their names forever in the history books of the South African domestic franchise T20 cricketing scene.
The Markram-led SEC had finished the league stages in the 3rd position with 19 points and they had to beat Faf Du Plessis-led Joburg Super Kings by 14 runs in 2nd semi-finale to confirm their spot in the finale at the Wanderers stadium in Johannesburg.
In the SA20 2023 final, the SEC had won the toss and elected to bowl first with their bowlers restricting the Pretoria-based outfit to just 135. Their bowling attack was led by Roelof Van der Merwe who claimed man-of-the-match figures of 4/31.
In response, Aiden Markram’s side chased down the total within 16.2 overs thanks to Adam Rossington’s 57 off 30, Jordan Hermann’s 22 off 17, and skipper Aiden Markram’s 26 off 19. That helped the Sunrisers franchise claim their first-ever franchise league title since 2016 when the Sunrisers Hyderabad then led by David Warner claimed the IPL title.
And now this season, the SEC have performed like true reigning champions, winning 7 games and losing just twice in the league stages. They secured direct qualification for the finals by beating Durban Super Giants in the play-off match by a margin of 51 runs and they will have to do the same yet again to successfully defend their title.
While they have reached the final because of their collective performances, the captaincy of Aiden Markram has also been very good and in this light, Dale Steyn believes he is not far from taking over South Africa’s captaincy across all formats.
“Obviously, from a cricketing point of view, he’s got a great brain. He’s a good thinker. And then he leads really well with both bat and in the field. that’s the kind of standard that he set for himself. He doesn’t just talk the talk. He actually walks the talk. So, yeah. If South Africa decides to go with somebody like Aiden Markram in the future to captain them, I’m giving that a thumbs up,” Dale Steyn told News18.
“He Was Able To Do That And Articulate That Very Well”, Steyn Opines On Aiden Markram’s IPL Captaincy
Dale Steyn went on to further claim that Aiden Markram did exceptionally well as an IPL captain last year for the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Steyn pointed out the fact that not all local Indian players are able to speak or understand English that fluently due to the accents and Markram did particularly well to keep the players in sync with his leadership.
“Lot of the local players, one, they don’t speak a lot of good English. And secondly, sometimes they don’t pick up the accents as well. So when you’re talking as a foreign captain, you have to almost talk slightly slower, slightly louder, more pronounced so that everyone can hear you. And I thought Aiden was able to do that and articulate that very well,” Steyn concluded.