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SA20

SA20 – Taking stock at the halfway mark

SA20 has reached its halfway mark, and things are shaping up nicely. There has been plenty of action, a host of surprises and fantastic crowds at almost every game. With 18 games still to be played, four in the playoffs and 14 in the pool stage, let’s take a moment to look at some key observations from the tournament thus far, and perhaps make a few predictions on where things are going.

Marco Jansen of the Sunrisers Eastern Cape
Image: Sportzpics/SA20/BackpagePix

SA20 has reached its halfway mark, and things are shaping up nicely. There has been plenty of action, a host of surprises and fantastic crowds at almost every game. With 18 games still to be played, four in the playoffs and 14 in the pool stage, let’s take a moment to look at some key observations from the tournament thus far, and perhaps make a few predictions on where things are going.

Two women looking excitedly at cellphone

1. Fans are buying in

Attendance has never been a problem for SA20, with many games sold out since the very first season in 2023. What is noticeably different this time around is the number of branded shirts on show amongst the spectators. Merchandise sales appear to have gone through the roof and home games have taken on a very different to feel to what they have been in the past. It suddenly feels like the fans have skin in the game, they aren’t just out for a good evening of entertainment.

2. Momentum is key

In a tournament where games come thick and fast there is a lot to be said for momentum. The Paarl Royals are top of the table with three wins from their last three games and four wins from five. On the flip side both Sunrisers Eastern Cape and Durban Super Giants have had bad run – it took Aiden Markram’s SEC three consecutive losses before they managed a win, while for DSG they are without a win in five games (two of which were no result). The point here is that with half the tournament still to go, anything can happen. The Sunrisers have shown that a bad run can be overturned – as once they finally won a first game, they followed it up with a second and a third and are now looking like an entirely different proposition.

The reality is that there are no bad teams in this competition. Each of the six sides is laden with stars, who on their day should be able to beat any team in the world. The Sunrisers won the first two editions of SA20 and suddenly it felt like they couldn’t win a game. Confidence is a major factor and that comes from momentum. It’s the difference between pushing a snowball up a hill (which is where DSG are right now) or rolling it down (hello Paarl Royals).

3. Importance of a good start

Big totals tend to start with big stands. This is not something that’s only true in SA20, this is a reality of white-ball cricket. Which is why you often find different batsmen opening in T20s compared to first class cricket. It’s not to say that it must be the first wicket that delivers the big runs, it could be the second. But most successful innings in the shortest form of the game follow a similar pattern – quick early runs, wickets in hand, explosive finish.

When the Capitals posted a score of 207 in Game Two, they had an opening stand of 154 (from 12.1 overs). Quite how they lost from there remains a big question, but they were chasing a score of 209 which was also built around an explosive opening stand (67 from 6.3 overs). Paarl Royals chased another big Capitals score (212 for five) on the back of a 125-run stand for the second wicket. If you get the start you need, your job is almost half done.

4. Catches win matches

This is nothing new, but it is so much more obvious in the shortest form of the game. In the space of 20 overs there are going to be chances offered up – that’s for sure. But even at a rate of one chance every ten balls, if you spill three or four chances there simply isn’t enough time to wait for the next chance before the over runs out. It is noticeable that the team which drops the fewest chances nearly always wins. In more traditional, longer forms of the game, you could argue that it is the team that offers the fewer chances which nearly always wins, but that cannot be applied to T20, because, frankly, you have to take (and in turn offer) chances if you are going to score at 12 or 13 to the over.

5. The weather

Nobody likes it when weather intervenes and affects the result of a game. The Super Giants have been hit hard with two matches rained out – which really doesn’t help their situation when they have also managed to lose three games. The Capitals have also been hit with a couple of No Results, while Cape Town were on the wrong side of a DWL decision and suffered a rained-out game as well. Rain and the highveld in summer sadly go hand-in-hand. The big storms tend to hit late in the afternoon which is exactly when the games are played. There is not much that can be done about this, but it has been a bit of downer – both for the players and the fans.

6. The future

Right now, it really is hard to look past Paarl Royals and MI Cape Town as the two best sides in the competition. Paarl have a fantastic blend of youth and experience and more than anything they seem like a happy team. Cape Town has extraordinary depth and international experience. DSG are in a hole and will have their work cut out to make it to the playoffs and it just feels like Joburg Super Kings are too old. Pretoria have battled with injuries and have struggled to get going – they could really do with a big knock from skipper Rilee Rossouw. This time last week it looked like SEC were a lost cause, but they have struck form just in time and with players like Markram, Tristan Stubbs, Marco Jansen and the very impressive Richard Gleeson in the mix, they cannot be discounted.

7. How does it unfold?

The group is easy to understand. Each team plays the other teams on a home and away basis. The results from those games contribute points to the table. After the initial pool stage games are done, the bottom two teams drop out of the tournament. Thereafter the top two teams play each other – the winner of that game goes straight through to the final. Meanwhile teams three and four play each other in an eliminator game with the loser dropping out and the winner going on to face the loser of the game between the two top sides. The winner of that game goes through to the final.

Standings provided by Sofascore
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