Battle for Play Off places heats up

The SA20 delivered another compelling week of drama and high quality cricket with the two Western Cape teams pulling clear at the top of the log and well placed to push for places in the ‘Qualifier’ match at the beginning of next week.

Defending champions, Sunrisers Eastern Cape, continued to confound with their wildly erratic form but will still challenge the Paarl Royals and MI Cape Town for a top two position if they win their final two matches while Joburg Super Kings are six points clear of the bottom two teams in fourth place.

The Pretoria Capitals and Durban Super Giants are still mathematically capable of reaching the play-offs but may need bonus point wins in their final games.

Neil Manthorp looks back at week three of the SA20:

Top performance: Marco Jansen is enjoying a remarkable tournament contributing in every game. Having repaired a broken innings with captain Aiden Markram from 53-5 to 149-7 he then took 4-13 to blow the Capitals away for yet another bonus point win.

Top bowler: Hardus Viljoen’s wonderful 4-24 was the most eye-catching of the JSK bowling line-up which chopped and diced the Sunrisers Eastern Cape to 188 all out but Lutho Sipamla’s 3-13 in three overs did far more for the bonus-point victory. Dismissing three of the top four batsmen for ducks is an extraordinary feat and it was undoubtedly the bowling performance of the week.

Honourable mentions to Joe Root’s 4-0-16-1 against JSK in Paarl and Royals teammate Bjorn Fortuin’s 4-0-13-1 against the hapless Super Giants in Paarl.

Top batter: Having plunged to 53-5 against the Capitals in front of their shocked home fans the Sunrisers were rescued by an Aidan Markram ‘special’. Calm and meticulous during the rebuild and explosive at the end, his 68 from 55 balls not led to a competitive total but a bonus-point win. Who would have thought…

The perception is that most games are won at the end – because that’s when they finish! But Rubin Hermann’s 44 from 22 balls in the first half of the innings did most of the work for the Royals against DSG. But the most dramatic fireworks of the week came from George Linde whose eye-popping 29* came from just eight balls, four of which disappeared for six.

Outstanding team: Rarely can a team have delivered more contrasting performances than the Sunrisers who have been either brilliant or terrible in their eight games – four of each, in fact.

It’s tempting to go the obvious route and declare the formidable Royals team of the week but, given what transpired in the first two editions of the SA20 when they could barely buy a win, MI Cape Town’s compelling form makes them team of the week.

Top Overseas player: Joe Root has created a monopoly on this category and there can be little reasonable argument against his 78* for the Paarl Royals against the Pretoria Capitals winning again. He also took 1-16 in four overs against JSK and 2-32 in the game against PC bowling four overs after batting through the innings in 40 degree temperatures. Devon Conway’s unbeaten 76 for JSK was barely above ‘minimum requirement’ chasing just 119 to win.

It’s not always about the size of the numbers but how they count – Liam Dawson’s 25 (11 balls) and 3-17 were both match-changing contributions for SEC against the Capitals.

Best match: One of the lesser mentioned attractions of the SA20 is that it is played on a variety of pitches with different characteristics which require teams not only to ‘read’ the game as they play it, but also to adapt their style of play.

The most extreme adaptation is required at Boland Park where totals as low as 120 can be competitive. The Capitals fought like feral cats to claw down the Royals 140 but, facing 20 overs of spin (for the first time ever in any franchise league) they fell 11-runs short.

Top Talking Point: How much faith should a team have in their ‘big name’ overseas players? Do you keep them in the team no matter what their returns? A few smaller name overseas players have been rested or rotated and even England allrounders Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali haven’t been guaranteed starters for DSG and JSK.

Another England player, however, appears to be a guaranteed starter for SEC. Opener Zak Crawley had scores 27 and 38 in the second and fourth games but his last scores have been 0, 4, 6 and 0.

Quote of the week: “We’re into the back half of the tournament now so it’s really satisfying to get another win, the guys have done exceptionally well. I have never seen that before (20 overs of spin in an innings) but to be part of it is great.

We did have Galiem as the pace option but luckily we bowled second. These are tough conditions to play T20 cricket in, but the guys have embraced the challenge. We will refresh mentally and cool the bodies down but we’ll be ready to go again!” – Royals captain, David Miller.

What to look out for: The final week of group matches and the scrap for play-off places should produce some white knuckles and, finally, some close finishes in what has been a tournament with an unusually high per centage of one sided and bonus point results.

Remember, it’s not just about finishing in the top four – a top two finish is what the teams want in order to guarantee two chances at reaching the final.