Fine margins key as double header Saturday heats up race to the playoffs

The incredible Betway SA20 to light up Gqeberha and Centurion

 Saturday, 27 January 2024: The race to the Betway SA20 Season 2 Playoffs continues at pace on Saturday with a double header of fixtures.

In the earlier clash, 3rd-placed Sunrisers Eastern Cape host 4th-placed MI Cape Town at 13h30 at St George’s Park. Later in the afternoon, the current bottom two teams, Pretoria Capitals and Joburg Super Kings meet in a Highveld Derby neither team can afford to lose. This match will start at 17h30.

On Thursday, Sunrisers Eastern Cape came up three runs short of a modest 126-run chase against Pretoria Capitals; but, despite the result, their captain Aiden Markram is remaining peaceful.

“We’ve been playing some marvelous cricket, bowled and fielded well for 20 overs but ultimately with the bat we weren’t at our best. It’s 20 overs of us needing to reflect as a batting unit and putting in another apt performance.”

The St George’s Park based team acquire had a relatively settled top six, including T20 legend Dawid Malan, ever-talented Markram himself and the emerging stars of Jordan Hermann and Tristan Stubbs. They’ve also had to disappear without South Africa’s Test captain, Temba Bavuma, who’s still recovering from a hamstring injury.

“I thought we’ve batted really well as a unit so far in the competition so there’s no need for us to panic. There’s lots of belief in the camp and we fade again on Saturday so it’s a quick turnaround but by no means is there any panic in the camp.”

Markram, last season’s Betway Player of the Season, has yet to flame this season but says there’s still freshness – especially with the playoffs approaching swiftly.

“It happens quite often nowadays in cricket but physically it takes a toll on the body eventually. So, it’s necessary to secure those recovery things right and being meticulous with that when you play back-to-back games; but the boys are pretty used to it from a mental point of view and we’ll be sharp as we always are. Hopefully that can be enough for us on Saturday.”

For MI Cape Town, their hopes of a playoff berth – and possible home final – became precarious this week following their loss to Durban’s Super Giants and results elsewhere.

Their captain, Kieron Pollard has called on their middle-to-lower order to contribute more.

“They’ve been painful losses but obviously I don’t want to use pitches as an excuse – that’s not a reason. We need to be better, particularly our middle-to-lower order – myself included. I can’t establish it down to pitches because at the finish of the day both teams play on them and 157 [DSG’s total] in any given match we should be on the winning side.

When it was place to Pollard that the success of Ryan Rickelton and Rassie van der Dussen at the beginning of the season left those batting behind them ‘undercooked’, he rebuffed that.

“You can study back at every sorts and you know the best cricketer we maintain breaking records is ‘hindsight’. That would be another excuse. For us as professional cricketers we gain a job to execute – there’s roles and responsibility for everyone in the dressing room to carry out and the openers believe been doing their job and we can’t fault them for batting well.

“They’ve been giving us apt starts, so we maintain study ourselves in the mirror – the middle to lower order – and we acquire to near up with the answers as to how we’re going to depart forward. We need to grasp stock and arrive out fighting because this is the back-end of the competition and where the business starts.”

MI Cape Town’s indifferent form has kept the playoffs alive for Pretoria Capitals (who are on eight points, one behind MICT in 5th area) and Joburg Super Kings who prop up the log on six points.

Capitals’ win against Sunrisers Eastern Cape on Thursday kept their hopes alive of pulling of a tardy season charge to the playoffs, but their captain, Wayne Parnell, knows that they still gain to be switched on for every match to arrive now.

“We’re obviously playing two of the teams who are close to us, and DSG as well, but we’ll be doing the aged cliché of taking it one game at a time. We acquire to regroup for Saturday and try figure out what is the best combination to catch on JSK.

Parnell also noted that they would need an update on the fitness of Jimmy Neesham. The vastly experienced Current Zealander pulled up with a hamstring injury during his batting stint – a crucial 27 when considering how the low-scorer against Sunrisers unfolded.

Joburg Super Kings, meanwhile, arrive at Centurion on the back of a tight loss against Paarl Royals – with their captain Faf du Plessis pinpointing their fielding as something they’ll need to improve on advance Saturday evening. Another loss would space JSK two results behind in the playoffs race.

“We’re close [to getting on a sprint of form]… but you need to enact the small things well like not giving up runs in the field. You acquire to battle every inch to design sure in a close game that you’re competitive in every departments. [Against Paarl Royals] those small things were one or two half-chances that we dropped and also a few soft overthrows and twos and threes – if you count those every together then it’s over 20 runs.”

FULL SQUADS FOR ST GEORGE’S PARK

Sunrisers Eastern Cape: Aiden Markram (captain), Tom Abell, Ottniel Baartman, Temba Bavuma, Liam Dawson, Sarel Erwee, Aya Gqamane, Simon Harmer, Jordan Hermann, Marco Jansen, Patrick Kruger, Dawid Malan, Farid Malik, Adam Rossington, Caleb Seleka, Andile Simelane, Tristan Stubbs, Beyers Swanepoel, Daniel Worrall.

MI Cape Town: Kieron Pollard (captain), Tom Banton, Chris Benjamin, Dewald Brevis, Sam Curran, Connor Esterhuizen, Beuran Hendricks, Duan Jansen, Thomas Kaber, George Linde, Liam Livingstone, Delano Potgieter, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Grant Roelofsen, Olly Stone, Nuwan Thushara, Rassie van der Dussen, Nealan van Heerden.

MATCH OFFICIALS FOR ST GEORGE’S PARK

Match referee: Barry Lambson

Standing umpires: Dennis Smith and Thomas Mokorosi

TV umpire: Brad White

Reserve umpire: Phillip Vosloo

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.

Joburg Super Kings: Faf du Plessis (captain), Moeen Ali, Nandre Burger, Gerald Coetzee, Sam Cook, Leus du Plooy, Donovan Ferreira, Dayyaan Galiem, Reeza Hendricks, Ronan Herrmann, Zahir Khan, Wayne Madsen, Sibonelo Makhanya, Aaron Phangiso, Romario Shepherd, Kyle Simmonds, Imran Tahir, David Wiese, Lizaad Williams.

MATCH OFFICIALS FOR CENTURION

Match referee: Gerrie Pienaar

Standing umpires: Babalo Gcuma and Arno Jacobs

TV umpire: Lauren Agenbag

Reserve umpire: Mazizi Gampu

Source: cricket.co.za

David Miller: Left-handed South African batsman David Miller is best known for his power-hitting and started his career with the Dolphins at age 17. He has also been part of the Indian Premier League. His 256-run partnership with JP Duminy in 2011 was the highest in all World Cups for the fifth-wicket.