The SA20 season rolls into Cape Town for the first time on Tuesday when Newlands plays host to the match between the MI Cape Town and the Sunrisers Eastern Cape as both teams play their third match of the competition.
Cape Town have a win and a defeat on their record so far this term while the Eastern Cape have a washout and a defeat on their ledger so this feels like it could be a bit of a defining game for both teams.
MI Cape Town
MI Cape Town could be forgiven for thinking that they should have had two wins to their name this season. They had posted a decent score in their opening match and there was definitely no guarantee that Durban would have chased it down at the time the rain arrived. Rather than feel sorry for themselves though, Cape Town kicked on and emphatically beat Joburg in their last match and already they look a much better team than they did last season.
We do still have one or two questions over them though. Both of their batting efforts so far have been built on strong opening partnerships so it will be interesting to see how they go should both of their openers fail in the same game. In saying that, they are not risk takers so you would imagine if one goes the other will play a little cleverer. The other thing which we will find out here is whether the Cape Town pitches suit them. There was a lot of criticism of the Test pitch here earlier in the month so all eyes will be on the wicket.
Sunrisers Eastern Cape
The defending champions haven’t hit the ground running in their title defence. They saw their opening match washed out and then they ran into a full blitz from the Durban’s Super Giants in their second one. In their defence, the Super Giants look to be the best team in the competition so far so that loss might not look terrible the longer the season goes on. They won’t want to go a third match without a win though so this feels like a key game for them.
To be fair to the Sunrisers, they looked to have Durban contained in the opening 10 overs of their bowling innings but then they lost the plot in the second half of it and ended up having to chase a total that was always going to put them under pressure. To be fair to their batters they made a decent fist of it and at one stage looked on course to run the total close but they just faltered at the back end and it cost them.
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Key Players
Ryan Rickleton has hit the ground running and some in this competition. He has started with 87 and 98 in his opening two matches and it looks like he will be the glue that the bigger hitters will all bat around so he needs to keep scoring.
Tristan Stubbs has been box office in this part of the world in recent times and he looked to be hitting the ball cleanly in the last game against Durban. You sense if the Sunrisers are going to win this he’ll need to contribute with the bat.
Betting
I would be amazed if we don’t get a very good batting strip in this match after the fallout from the Test match where it has to be said the pitch was pretty ordinary. This is becoming a high profile tournament with world class players in it and the organisers and the home ground staff won’t want to put up a dodgy pitch with so many people watching so that makes me think we need to approach this one with a high scoring game in mind.
Newlands isn’t the biggest ground either, especially straight down the ground so I like the thought that we’re going to get plenty of sixes here. We certainly have two teams who hit the ball a long way with plenty of players who don’t even need to have small boundaries to hit sixes. The likes of Liam Livingstone, Kieron Pollard, Tristan Stubbs and Dewald Brevis are all on show here and you’d have to say there is nothing in either bowling attack to deter the batters here. The sixes line for this one is 12.5 and that doesn’t look high enough to me.
Tips
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