SA20: Recap and Refresh

The first edition of the Betway SA20 was a resounding success. Not only did it contribute heavily towards the Gross Domestic Product of South Africa, but it also brought back big crowds, which is something that had been missing domestically for a long time.

Proper awareness through each team’s social media pages, fan engagement at stadiums, the chance to win a share of R 1 million (later ramped up to R 2 million) and low ticket prices meant that people from all backgrounds flocked to the grounds to see some entertaining cricket and just enjoy some good company.

There was a feeling that having two semifinals as the choice of knockouts wasn’t ideal and for that reason it was changed to have the same format as the Indian Premier League (IPL). Therefore, there will be a Qualifier 1 (the team who ended first plays against the team who ended second) where the winner goes through to the final, while the loser gets second chance by playing against the winner of the Eliminator (third against fourth place) to determine the second finalist.

Let’s have a look at each side’s first season journey and what to expect in the next.

SUNRISERS EASTERN CAPE

Having started the tournament slowly, ironically with two losses against the Pretoria Capitals, they stormed back to book a spot in the semifinals and eventually triumphed over the same opponent in the final. Roelof van der Merwe was credited with the turnaround, and rightfully so. Not only did he end up as the leading wicket taker in the tournament with 20 wickets in nine innings at an economy rate of 5.61, but he also ignited that fire and passion that he brings to any team that he plays for.

Aiden Markram was instrumental as a captain and allrounder. Markram was named player of the tournament having not only led his team to the title, but also scoring 366 runs, including a century in the in the semifinal. He made vital contributions with the ball as well, taking 11 wickets in 10 innings at an economy rate of only 6.19. The captain truly led from the front, and it culminated in him being named captain of the national side as well.

Ahead of season two the Sunrisers have bolstered their side with three new England players in Dawid Malan, Liam Dawson and Craig Overton. Having let go of Junaid Dawood ahead of the auction, they picked up young Caleb Seleka. They also added Beyers Swanepoel to their pool of allrounders who already plies his trade in Eastern Province for the Dafabet Warriors. The Sunrisers rounded out their side with young Andile Simelane as their Rookie pick, who is a talented pace bowling allrounder who will look to impress. Roelof van der Merwe made himself unavailable for selection for the upcoming season of the Betway SA20, which is a big blow to the team and something they will have to work around.

The orange army will expect another successful campaign from the men who call St. George’s Park their home, with the band belting out their support from the stands.

PRETORIA CAPITALS

The Pretoria Capitals dominated for most of the tournament and ended at the top of the table with seven wins out of ten. They marched into the final as favourites having beaten the Sunrisers in both their previous encounters, but they were unable to post a competitive total on a tricky Wanderers pitch and watched as the target was hunted down without much of a fuss.

Disappointing as the final result might have been, they will be happy about the team they managed to put together and the performances throughout their campaign. Will Jacks and Phil Salt formed a dynamic partnership at the top, often getting the team off to a flying start. Jacks in particular had a fantastic tournament scoring 270 runs in only 7 innings at a blistering strike rate of 201.49.

From a bowling perspective, Eathan Bosch was a bit of a surprise package in a team that had Anrich Nortje in their ranks. Bosch often struck in the powerplay to set the tone for the innings. He ended up taking 15 wickets, the fourth best in the tournament.

Jimmy Neesham showed his all-round value by contributing vital runs and wickets, and he was a menace in the field as well. He took some absolute blinders at point and off his own bowling.

Ahead of season two they picked up Paul Stirling, the powerful opening batter from Ireland. They added Corbin Boch who will join his brother for the first time in the same team. Kyle Verreynne was their pick as backup wicketkeeping batter, while young Matthew Boast will look show his all-round value with the ball and bat. Their Rookie pick, Steve Stolk, is a swashbuckling batter who can leave a big impression, but that will have to wait until late in the tournament as he has been named in the provisional 18-man squad for the Under-19 World Cup that will take place throughout January 2024.

With an already strong squad being made even stronger ahead of the new season, the Pretoria Capitals will look to go one step further and secure their first trophy.

JOBURG SUPER KINGS

The men in yellow had a bit of an up and down campaign. In the first match itself they were 27/4 before a counterattacking 82*(40) from Donovan Ferreira ensured that they posted 190 to secure their first victory. They then posted three scores of under 130 in their next four matches, losing all of them, before going unbeaten in the rest of the league stage. They eventually came unstuck against the Sunrisers Eastern Cape in their semifinal as they were unable to chase down a mammoth target of 214 at SuperSport Park.

The Joburg Super Kings were ably led by the ever-composed Faf du Plessis who scored 369 runs in 10 innings at an average of 41 and a strike rate of 147.60. He also became the first player to score a century in the SA20. Leus du Plooy also had a wonderful stint in yellow, scoring 249 runs in eight innings at an average of 62.25 and a strike rate of 137.56.

A breakthrough tournament for Gerald Coetzee kept the Super Kings in the hunt throughout as he took 17 wickets in only nine innings at an astonishing strike rate of 10.05 to end as the third leading wicket taker in the tournament. It was a sign of things to come as he went on to make his debut for the Proteas across formats and excel at the World Cup.

The Super Kings made a host of changes ahead of the auction, bringing on board Moeen Ali, David Wiese, Sam Cook and Zahir Khan, the young left-arm wrist spinner from Afghanistan. At the auction they added Wayne Madsen, the experienced top order hitter from England, Dayyaan Galiem, the allrounder from the Momentum Multiply Titans and brought back Romario Shepherd. Imran Tahir, the wily 44-year-old who represented the Proteas on 165 occasions across formats was picked as a Wildcard and will join forces with his former captain. Their Wildcard pick was Ronan Hermann, who is a top-order wicketkeeping batter with a lot of potential who could yet make an impact in the tournament.

Having made it to the semifinals last time around, the Joburg Super Kings will back themselves to have a more solid performance across the board with the addition of some experienced pros who will blend with the youngsters coming in.

PAARL ROYALS

Ahead of the opening tournament the Paarl Royals looked like one of the favourites on paper with some fearsome overseas batters and a strong local core in the bowling department. However, they had a shaky tournament and only managed to win one match away from their home at Boland Park. The four matches they won out of ten proved to be just about enough to sneak into the semifinals in fourth position from where they were comfortably beaten by the Pretoria Capitals.

Their bowling attack was set up for the slow and spinning conditions at home with Tabraiz Shamsi and Bjorn Fortuin in their ranks. The latter proved vital to their cause as he took 14 wickets in 10 innings at an economy rate of 6.45. Fortuin was particularly effective bowling in the powerplay. Fortuin’s fortune however echoed that of his team as he was only able to pick up two wickets away from home.

Jos Buttler led the way with the bat, ending up as the top scorer in the tournament with 391 runs in 11 innings at an average of 39.10 and a strike rate of 132.54. Captain David Miller was their second leading run scorer with 227, but he was unable to register a fifty.

In season one they were a bit hampered by the unavailability of Obed McCoy due to injury, but they will be hoping to have his services for the duration of the upcoming season. The Royals stuck with the core of their players, but have added middle order batter Lorcan Tucker from Ireland, Fabian Allen the left-handed spinning allrounder from the West Indies and pace bowler John Turner from England. In addition to this they have added a couple of 17-year-olds to bolster their stocks. Kwena Maphaka is an exciting young left-arm quick that has been likened to a young Kagiso Rabada and Lhuan-dre Pretorius, their Rookie pick, is a destructive opening batter who has a style similar to that of Cory Anderson and can do wicketkeeping or off-spin duties as well. However, both of them will feature in the Under-19 World Cup before they can join up with the rest of the squad at the backend of the tournament.

The Royals will look for an improved season where they are able to make their home a fortress and also perform better on the road.

DURBAN’S SUPER GIANTS

From the moment the Super Giants squad was assembled at the auction, it looked a bit imbalanced. However, not in the normal sense where there might be a lack of allrounders and potentially a long tail. In this instance they picked an abundance of allrounders without any of them having the ability to truly hold down a spot with one of their two skillsets alone. They looked like they simply lacked some specialist batters and bowlers. So, it wasn’t necessarily a major surprise when they only managed to win four out of their ten matches and failed to qualify for the semifinals.

Throughout the tournament they chopped and changed with the XI and the order in which they batted. The fact that Quinton de Kock came in to bat at No 5 in one match should be a clear indication of a lack of a proper planning during the auction and the tournament itself. They did however manage to shine from time to time. At the forefront of some of their best performances was Heinrich Klaasen, a man who sent out clear signals that 2023 would be his year. He scored 363 runs in 9 innings at an average of 60.50 and a strike rate of 164.25. His tournament was summed up in his masterful bludgeoning of the Pretoria Capitals at SuperSport Park where he struck 104 not out off only 44 balls after they finally realised that he needed to bat up the order.

Reece Topley ended up being their top wicket taker with 10 wickets in eight innings, which in itself shows that they lacked the necessary striking ability with the ball. They had an abundance of spinners to choose from, but not enough bowlers with some real pace. One of the specialists they did have in the squad was Matthew Breetzke, who ended up only batting 4 times and averaged 62.50 at a strike rate of 137.36.

Ahead of the auction the Super Giants acquired the services of Bhanuka Rajapaksa, a destructive top-order batter and Naveen-ul-Haq who has also represented the franchise in the IPL with distinction, using his variations in pace to good effect. The Super Giants managed to sign up a star player in Nicholas Pooran as their Wildcard, even though he is set to only take part in a couple of matches before heading over to the International T20 League in the UAE. They also traded Simon Harmer to the Sunrisers who in turn gave them Jon-Jon Smuts. Having retained a large part of their squad, they had the least to do going into the auction. They picked up batting allrounder Jason Smith who has become familiar with conditions in Durban over the last few seasons at the Hollywoodbets Dolphins. They also picked up local boy Bryce Parsons as their Rookie. He is a batting allrounder who captained the SA Under-19 side in 2020 and will look to prove that he is worthy of a spot in the match day XI.

While there are still some questions about the balance of the Super Giants ahead of season two, they have managed to sign some specialists that should help them be more competitive. They will need to make sure that they pick their best balanced XI and that they use their knowledge of home conditions to their advantage if they want to progress to the knockout matches this time.

MI CAPE TOWN

Widely regarded as the best team on paper ahead of the first edition of the Betway SA20, with international superstars including Rashid Khan, Sam Curran, Jofra Archer and Liam Livingstone, MI Cape Town ended up severely underperforming and proving that tournaments aren’t won on paper. They came dead last after only winning three out of their ten matches.

The team struggled in most matches to get off to a good start. Even when they didn’t lose a bunch of early wickets, they weren’t able to go at a good enough tempo. This is illustrated in their top two run scorers, Rassie van der Dussen and Dewald Brevis only striking at 122.11 and 117.50 respectively. None of their batters managed to score over 250 runs across the tournament. Liam Livingstone was injured and unavailable which was a big blow as he could have lent the fire power in the middle overs that they lacked.

Kagiso Rabada was their top wicket taker with 11 wickets in eight innings at an economy rate of 7.45. Once again on paper they had the services of Rabada, Archer, Curran, Khan and George Linde, which looks like a fearsome attack, but they just weren’t able to click in unison. Archer only played six matches and Rashid Khan wasn’t at his usual best.

It would have been a frustrating season for them, but the selectors chose to keep the faith and stick to the majority of the squad that still looks strong from the outside. They signed up Tom Banton, the England top order striker, ahead of the auction. At the auction they picked up Chris Benjamin, a lower order wicketkeeper batter who is originally from South Africa, Nealan van Heerden a pace bowler and Thomas Kaber, a left-arm wrist spinner. They had the first choice of a Rookie and decided to snap up Connor Esterhuizen, a promising wicketkeeper batter who is known for striking the ball cleanly.

MI Cape Town will look to have a complete reverse of the last season and play to their potential and make the final of the Betway SA20 which will be held in front of their home crowd at Newlands.