After three weeks of round-robin action, the SA20 has reached the business stage, with table-topping Sunrisers Eastern Cape taking on second-placed Durban’s Super Giants at Newlands on Tuesday, 6 February, in Qualifier One.

The winner will secure a place in Saturday’s final at the same venue. 

On Wednesday, third and fourth-placed Paarl Royals and Joburg Super Kings will face each other at the Wanderers Cricket Stadium in the Eliminator match.

There is one final playoff match before the final. On Thursday at the Wanderers, the loser of Qualifier One and the winner of the Eliminator will tackle each other in Qualifier Two for a spot in the final on Saturday.

It’s a complicated playoff system based on that of the Indian Premier League. In the inaugural season of the SA20, there was a traditional playoff system with two semifinals and a final.

The playoff system, in its current iteration, does not reward league-stage performances. Joburg Super Kings scraped into the final four with only three wins in 10 matches.

Yet, because the playoff venues are predetermined, the side from Johannesburg will play the Eliminator at home against Paarl Royals, who won five matches, and if they make it through, will play Qualifier Two at home too.

Nevertheless, with the competition still in its infancy stage, the flaws are sure to be ironed out with time.

Rampaging Rickelton 

For the second successive season, MI Cape Town finished at the foot of the SA20 table. Across the first two seasons, they have managed only six victories, less than both Sunrisers Eastern Cape and Durban’s Super Giants notched up this season.

Ryan Rickelton of MI Cape Town drives a delivery. (Photo: Sportzpics)

However, despite the failure of the collective, opening batter Ryan Rickelton scored 530 runs in 10 innings. To put this into perspective, across the two seasons of the SA20, no other batter has passed 400 runs.

The wicketkeeper-batter passed 50 in half of his 10 innings this season at an average of 58.88. He reached the 90s on three occasions but was unable to achieve his maiden T20 century. His best score was 98.

He clubbed his runs quickly too, smacking the white leather around at a strike rate of 173.77 this season.

Having been left out of all of South Africa’s squads during India’s recent visit, Rickelton has raised his hand high to be in contention for a place in the Proteas’ squad for the upcoming T20I World Cup in June.

South Africa’s wicketkeeping-batting talent is not in short supply, however. One of the form men in world white-ball cricket, Heinrich Klaasen, has also been in devastating form in the SA20, for Durban’s Super Giants.

The powerful batter is the fourth-highest run scorer with 350 and has an eye-catching strike rate of 207.10 — the highest among batters who have faced more than three balls throughout the tournament.

Klaasen also broke the week-long record of Joburg Super Kings’ Donovan Ferreira by smashing the fastest 50 of the SA20 in only 16 deliveries against Paarl Royals.

Too fast 

With all the carnage that has occurred this season with the willow, many of the tournament’s best bowlers took a beating. The leading wicket-taker of the league phase, Lizaad Williams — who bowled with high pace and accuracy to pick up 15 scalps — had an economy rate of 9.92. 

Wayne Parnell and Lungi Ngidi, who have collected 13 and 14 wickets, respectively, have both gone at around 10 to the over. The three aforementioned pacers have travelled to all parts because they often bowl at the most difficult times in T20 cricket — with the new ball and in the death overs.

Ottniel Baartman of Sunrisers Eastern Cape. (Photo: Sportzpics)

However, Sunrisers Eastern Cape quick Ottniel Baartman proved that he could fulfil both tricky tasks with aplomb while picking up wickets. In the six matches Baartman has played, he’s picked up 12 wickets, while going at less than eight runs to the over. 

Baartman’s hard length bowling with just enough movement through the air with the new ball has proven hard to hit in the early stages of the innings. But what has been most impressive has been his ability to consistently nail yorkers in pressure situations to close out matches for his captain, Aiden Markram.

It’s been a breakthrough season for the man from Oudtshoorn. DM