MI Cape Town were crowned as the new champions of the SA20 in the 2025 edition as the Men in Blue beat the two-time winners Sunrisers Eastern Cape in the final, denying them a historic three-peat in Johannesburg on Saturday, February 9. The table-toppers this time, MICT turned their fortunes and performance around after two bottom-place finishes in the SA20 to deservedly get their hands on the title as the Mumbai Indians (MI) franchise now has a title in every T20 competition they have featured in across the globe.
This was the 11th title for MI universe across T20 leagues around the world, and it needed a lot of careful planning, recruitment, and eventually, execution to be achieved for the Cape Town-based side. Following a poor last season in 2024 where the Men in Blue could only win three matches in the whole season, the first step was recruitment. MICT brought in an experienced international batter in the form of Reeza Hendricks in the line-up, got Trent Boult from the ILT20 to play the whole season and chose Corbin Bosch as a wild-card pick to round up their team.
The biggest factor? The return of Rashid Khan to lead the side and the bowling attack, which was phenomenal throughout and the local stars Dewald Brevis and George Linde coming up clutch were other key reasons for MICT ending up where they eventually did. In the final, it was the duo of Ryan Rickelton and Rassie van der Dussen who landed the first punch with a quick start in the powerplay, not for the first time in the tournament.
MICT lost a couple of wickets in the powerplay but whoever came next didn’t let the momentum slip. Connor Esterhuizen, George Linde and finally Brevis, who after a couple of poor seasons, concluded a fantastic campaign personally with yet another quickfire knock as all of them came and smashed and lifted MICT’s score to 181, which after winning the toss in a final was not bad.
Sunrisers required a good start to challenge MICT for the title but probably didn’t help themselves by losing a couple of early wickets in the powerplay itself. Tom Abell and Tony de Zorzi, the hero in the second qualifier for the Sunrisers put on a rescue act but the two-time champions were falling behind on the required rate. Once both of them got out in a span of six deliveries, the writing was on the wall.
After which the trio of Rabada, Rashid Khan and Boult just aced the latter half and the left-armer in particular, gave away just nine runs in four overs and picked up two wickets to walk away with the Player of the Match Award. It was a disappointing performance with the bat for the Sunrisers, who capitulated to 105 all-out after having chased a 170-plus score comfortably a couple of days ago. Boult became only the first player to win all four titles with the MI men’s teams – Mumbai Indians, Cape Town, Emirates and New York.