South Africa Star Delays Wedding Day To Play SA20 Final vs MI Cape Town, Loses The Match

It was a topsy-turvy day for South Africa’s batter, David Bedingham, who postponed his wedding day to feature in the SA20 2024-25 season for the Sunrisers Eastern Cape against MI Cape Town at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg.

It didn’t end on a promising note, as the two-time champions failed to grab their third consecutive title of the league. Their fragile batting, during the chase of 182 runs, couldn’t stand tall, as they were bundled out for 105 runs in 18.4 overs.

Sunrisers Eastern Cape’s SA20 2024-25 journey

It was not a smooth start in the 2024-25 campaign for the Sunrisers Eastern Cape as they began their journey with three successive defeats in the event. They lost the opening clash against MI Cape Town by 97 runs before Paarl Royals handed them a nine-wicket defeat. Pretoria Capitals tore them apart with a six-wicket loss.

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At this point, it was incredibly hard for the Aiden Markram-led side to reach the playoffs of the competition. But they turned the clock with some special performances at home. They blew away the Durban Super Giants on back-to-back occasions with heavy victories and added two more wins in the pocket.

The winners of the 2023 and 2024 seasons lost their next two encounters against the Johannesburg Super Kings and MI Cape Town, but that wasn’t enough for them to miss the qualification train. They displayed some fabulous performances against the JSK in the eliminator and smashed the Royals in the second qualifier to reach the final.

South Africa Batter’s roller coaster SA20 season

David Bedingham made his Test debut for South Africa during the last home series against India. When a few national players didn’t fly to New Zealand for the Test series, he was part of the eleven as a senior member. In 12 red-ball clashes, the right-handed batter has clubbed 645 runs at an average of 33.94 and a strike rate of 69.72, with the help of three half-centuries and one century at the best score of 110.

It wasn’t a superb season for Bedingham with the Sunrisers. In his maiden season of the league, the 30-year-old smacked 241 runs in 12 innings at an average of 20.08 and a strike rate of just 120 with the best score of 48.

As per ESPNcricinfo’s Firdose Monda, David set the plans for his marriage to fiancée, Jenna van Niekerk, over this weekend, but later realized that he had accidentally set the date on the SA20 final.

“The wedding was booked and planned, but then SEC made the final, so now he has moved the wedding to tomorrow,” Monda claimed, indicating that an alternative was in place for the batter.

David Bedingham reveals story of missing bachelor party

South Africa’s middle-order batter gave an interview to SuperSport, where he highlighted his plan for the special weekend. He pointed out that he still had to make the flight to his wedding location on February 09 after the tournament final.

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“My missus yesterday was saying I hope you guys lose, but she said once we won, we must make it to the final and then hopefully make it to the wedding as well.” The George-born expressed.

The South Africa batter missed the bachelor party with his friends, as SEC was playing the second qualifier against the Royals, and had to be replaced by his father in the trip.

“My best man and my brother are also flying up, and they told my missus that they’ll make sure I make the flight. I said it will end up with me making sure they get on the flight.” South Africa’s batter added.