We have another double header of action in the SA20 tournament on Saturday and the opening game of the two sees us going to Centurion for the first time this season for the battle between the Pretoria Capitals and the Sunrisers Eastern Cape.
These two will know each other well by the end of this match because they opened their season against each other in Port Elizabeth on Thursday. The Capitals cruised to victory in that one so the Eastern Cape will be out for revenge here.
Pretoria Capitals
It has been a good few days for the Capitals franchises across the world because the Pretoria Capitals got their campaign underway with a win on Thursday and then the Dubai Capitals followed suit by winning the opening game of their ILT20 campaign on Friday. Pretoria will be hoping that home advantage can send them to a second win of the season, one which would put them on top of the early SA20 league table.
Things didn’t go completely to plan for the Capitals in that first match. They found themselves at 80-5 with the bat at one point but to be fair Phil Salt played a lovely innings and a couple of cameos towards the end of the 20 overs got them up to a daunting score which they defended pretty comfortably. There might have been a disappointment at not getting a bonus point when they had the Sunrisers 68-4 more than halfway into their innings. A winning start was important though.
Sunrisers Eastern Cape
I don’t think that opening game went to plan for the Sunrisers Eastern Cape at all. They looked to be heading towards something decent when they got stuck into the Pretoria top order but like we’ve seen throughout this competition so far they were unable to maintain the pressure with the ball and it cost them dearly. They tried as hard as they could in the run chase but you got the feeling they were always running up the escalator the wrong way.
If there were some room for improvement in that first game one of them would be the management of the overs bowled better from Aiden Markram. He didn’t get his best bowlers bowling the key overs for me. The other improvement that is needed is with the top order. It might be work Markram going up to open but in saying that they have two experienced openers doing the job for them. They have had their run to warm into the tournament and now they need to deliver something big.
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Key Players
We saw precious little of Rilee Rossouw in the opening game but SuperSport Park is a batting track and a ground which is made for him to score big and it would be a surprise if he fails against the same opposition twice in three days.
The same could really be said of Tristan Stubbs. No player cost a franchise more to sign them in this competition than Stubbs and with that comes pressure. He gave us a cameo of his talents in the previous game but needs to do it for longer.
Betting
SuperSport Park in Centurion is one of the best batting wickets in the country and given that these two sides have already treated us to a high scoring match on another of those types of pitches I’m expecting nothing different in this clash. We are closer to Johannesburg here in Centurion and that means a bit of altitude and the ball flying much further through the air. The outfield is likely to be lightning quick here as well which will help the run scoring.
This match has a boundaries line of 37.5 which might sound on the high side but even though both top orders got themselves into trouble early on in the reverse fixture, there were still 48 in that match on Thursday and that was with the likes of Will Jacks, Rilee Rossouw and Aiden Markram all making single figures which isn’t going to happen very often. I think there is more to come from the batters here and so I expect the boundary line to be covered with something to spare.
Tips
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