Cricket South Africa | Centurion sold out for Pretoria Capitals and Paarl Royals re-match

Capitals out to avenge opening match defeat in Paarl on Friday

Sunday, 14 January 2024: Match 6 of Betway SA20 Season 2 between Pretoria Capitals and Paarl Royals at Centurion today is officially sold out. Fans who attended the opening matches at each venue this week gain been treated to entertaining cricket and a jam-packed stadium experience, as the excitement for this season captures the country.

Pretoria Capitals will believe the opportunity to avenge their Betway SA20 opening defeat to Paarl Royals in front of a packed house when they host the Western Cape team at Centurion at 15h30 (SAST).

The two sides met just a couple of days ago at Boland Park where the Royals maximised home advantage to clinch victory.

The Royals’ spinners were particularly qualified in their conditions, but face an entirely different prospect up on the Highveld.

Stand-in Capitals captain Jimmy Neesham acknowledged that the Royals had outplayed them in their competition opener, but promised that matters would be entirely different the second time around.

“You don’t catch too much from such a loss, you can’t acquire belters in every game, but the surface will be different (in Centurion),” Neesham said. “We acquire a lot of experience and it is a case of dusting ourselves off.”

Meanwhile, the Royals are hoping to maintain the winning momentum on the road.

They are also likely to unleash English speed merchant John Turner on the rapid and bouncy Highveld surface.

“Johny really is (rapid). He is a nice young and up and coming international rapid bowler. He has fitted in really well into the squad perfectly,” said Royals head coach Shane Bond.

“We’ve got a really nice squad of youth and experience.”

The Capitals and Royals acquire met on three occasions in the Betway SA20. with each team taking the honours on their home ground. The Royals, of course, acquire won twice at Boland Park, while the Capitals claimed victory at Centurion last season.

The Capitals will wish the trend continues at Centurion on Sunday, but the Royals will no doubt inspect to change that statistic.

The match starts at 15h30 (SAST).

Fans are encouraged to secure their tickets for the remaining league matches to ensure they don’t miss out on the world-class cricket and entertainment. Tickets are available at www.SA20.co.za

FULL SQUADS FOR CENTURION

Pretoria Capitals: Wayne Parnell (captain), Matthew Boast, Corbin Bosch, Eathan Bosch, Shane Dadswell, Theunis de Bruyn, Daryn Dupavillon, Colin Ingram, Will Jacks, Senuran Muthusamy, Jimmy Neesham, Migael Pretorius, Adil Rashid, Rilee Rossouw, Phil Salt, Paul Stirling, Tiaan van Vuuren, Kyle Verreynne, Hardus Viljoen.

Paarl Royals: David Miller (captain), Ferisco Adams, Fabian Allen, Jos Buttler, Keith Dudgeon, Bjorn Fortuin, Evan Jones, Wihan Lubbe, Obed McCoy, Lungi Ngidi, Nqaba Peter, Andile Phehlukwayo, Jason Roy, Tabraiz Shamsi, Lorcan Tucker, John Turner, Mitchell van Buuren, Dane Vilas, Codi Yusuf.

Match officials: 

Referee: Barry Lambson

On-field umpires: Marais Erasmus and Arno Jacobs

TV umpire: Denis Smith

Reserve umpire: Lauren Agenberg

Notes

Source: cricket.co.za

Kevin Pietersen: With an HPI of 19.94, Kevin Pietersen is the 4th most famous South African Cricketer. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Kevin Peter Pietersen (born 27 June 1980) is an English cricket commentator, conservationist, and former England international captain. He is a right-handed batsman and occasional off spin bowler who played in all three formats for England between 2005 and 2014, which included a brief tenure as captain. He won the Player of the Series award for his heroics in 2010 ICC World Twenty20 and for helping the England Cricket Team win their maiden ICC trophy. Pietersen was born to an Afrikaner father and English mother in South Africa. He made his first-class debut for Natal in 1997 and moved to England in 2000, after voicing his displeasure at what he said was the racial quota system in South African cricket. Being of English ancestry, Pietersen was eligible for the England team so long as he first served a four-year qualifying period in English county cricket. He was called up by England almost immediately after he completed four years with Nottinghamshire. He made his international debut in the One Day International (ODI) match against Zimbabwe in 2004 and his Test match debut in the 2005 Ashes series against Australia.Pietersen left Nottinghamshire for Hampshire in 2005, but the England team’s subsequent reliance on him resulted in Pietersen making only a single first-class appearance for his new county between 2005 and 2010. In June 2010, Pietersen announced his wish to leave Hampshire; he joined Surrey on loan for the remainder of the season, then moved permanently in 2011.Pietersen was captain of the England Test and ODI teams from 4 August 2008 to 7 January 2009, but resigned after just three Tests and nine ODIs following a dispute with the England coach Peter Moores, who was sacked the same day. Pietersen’s relationship with the ECB never fully recovered. This came to a head in 2012 when, after a disagreement over his schedule, Pietersen announced his retirement from all forms of international limited-overs cricket on 31 May. Although he later retracted his retirement, his relationship with both the ECB and his team-mates soured during the series against South Africa, and he was dropped for the final Test of that series. Pietersen last played for England in the 2013–14 Ashes and subsequent ODIs, after which he was informed that he was no longer being considered for international selection. He also played for the Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash League until the end of BBL|07 (seventh season), the Quetta Gladiators in the Pakistan Super League as well as the Hollywoodbets Dolphins in the CSA T20 Challenge. He was also signed by the Rising Pune Supergiants for the 2016 season of the Indian Premier League. Pietersen is one of the fastest batsman to reach 1,000 ODI runs and still holds the record for being the fastest player to cross 2,000 runs in One Day International cricket. He has the second-highest run total from his first 25 Tests, behind only Sir Don Bradman of Australia, and was the fastest player, in terms of days, to reach 4,000, 5,000 and 7,000 Test runs. He became only the third English batsman to top the ICC One Day International rankings, doing so in March 2007. In July 2008, after a century against South Africa, The Times called him “the most complete batsman in cricket” and in 2012 The Guardian called him “England’s greatest modern batsman”. On the occasion of England’s 1000th Test in August 2018, he was named in the country’s greatest Test XI by the ECB.