Jonny Bairstow scored 85 runs (Photo: PTI)

Jonny Bairstow: Out of England team. Preity Zinta also left her team Punjab Kings. Wicketkeeper batsman Jonny Bairstow is yearning for a buyer in two consecutive IPL auctions. No one placed bets on him in the IPL 2026 auction when he had kept the base price at only Rs 1 crore. But, keeping all these regrets aside, Jonny Bairstow has opened his bat in the South African T20 League. Not only has Bairstow brought his name back into the limelight with his explosive innings in SA20, he has also benefited Kavya Maran.

Jonny Bairstow's dominant style in SA20

We will come to how Jonny Bairstow took advantage of Kavya Maran. But before that let us pay attention to his explosive innings. In SA20, the match was played between Pretoria Capitals and Sunrisers Eastern Cape on 5 January. In this match, Pretoria team, playing first, scored 176 runs for 7 wickets in 20 overs. Meaning, Sunrisers got the target of 177 runs.

Quinton de Kock and Jonny Bairstow opened for the Sunrisers team. Once both the batsmen came to the crease, they did not get out to anyone. The result was that both returned after winning the matches.

Bairstow scored 34 runs in one over

The worst victim of the storm created by Jonny Bairstow was Pretoria Capitals spinner Keshav Maharaj. Bairstow scored 34 runs against him in just one over. He scored these runs with the help of 5 sixes and 1 four.

Bairstow's total innings was of 45 balls, in which he scored 85 unbeaten runs with a total of 6 sixes. Quinton De Kock also hit only 6 sixes from the other end. He scored unbeaten 79 runs on 41 balls.

Preity Zinta took advantage of Kavya Maran

Jonny Bairstow was dropped from the team by Preity Zinta's franchise Punjab Kings after IPL 2024. After that, no team bought him in the auction of IPL 2025 and IPL 2026. Before Punjab Kings, he was also associated with Kavya Maran's IPL franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad from 2019 to 2021. SRH owner Kavya Maran has also been among those who did not bet on Bairstow in the IPL 2026 auction, but in SA20, she has also done them a favor by leading Sunrisers Eastern Cape to victory.