The inaugural season of the SA20 tournament is on the horizon as the domestic scene in South Africa gets a shake up with its first franchise competition involving six teams each with a significant link to the Indian Premier League.
Tournaments have come and gone in the past in South Africa but this one feels like it might be around for a while with the money from the IPL franchises likely to keep it afloat. One thing which is for sure is the cast list and the venues should make for some excellent cricket for the next month.
The Format
The six teams each play the other five home and away in the first part of the competition. The top four in the table then make it through to the semi-finals with the winners of those progressing to the final. There are no hugely quirky rules for this tournament although captains will be allowed to name 13 men in their side before the toss before choosing which two players to discard after the toss has taken place. There is a bonus point available for teams who win with a run rate of 1.25 times the opposition.
The Teams
The Durban Super Giants are bedded in with the owners of the Lucknow Super Giants and go into the tournament around 5/1 to win the event. They have a mixture of South Africa internationals and franchise cricketers on their books but there looks to be a huge emphasis on Quinton de Kock delivering at the top of the order. In fairness to the Super Giants, they have some handy seamers so if there is something in the pitches at Kingsmead they could be surprise packages but would need a lot to go in their favour. They look an out and out batter or two light to me though.
Johannesburg Super Kings are an affiliate of the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL and there is a lot of continuity between the two franchises. Stephen Fleming is the coach and Faf du Plessis will skipper the side. He’ll be up to speed after a stint in the Big Bash League and have recruited a number of home players which could be significant because conditions in Johannesburg are unique. The Super Kings need big seasons out of Maheesh Theekshana when he arrives and Aaron Phangiso to justify odds around the 7/2 mark.
The favourites for the inaugural season are the MI Cape Town, the franchise directly linked with the Mumbai Indians who are one of the leading lights in the IPL. I think it is fair to say that on paper the best squad in the tournament belongs to the Newlands’ franchise Rashid Khan is always a gun and that he has left the Big Bash to play in this tournament is a huge thing. On top of him they have huge power from the bat of Dewald Brevis and Liam Livingstone and plenty of quality with the ball from Jofra Archer, Sam Curran and Kagiso Rabada among others. Add in classy home players such as Beuran Hendricks, George Linde, Ryan Rickelton and Rassie van der Dussen and MI Cape Town look the team to beat but are only around 11/4 to be crowned champions.
While MI Cape Town might have the best squad in the tournament, the best batting unit could well belong to the Paarl Royals who have the likes of Jos Buttler, Jason Roy, Eoin Morgan and David Miller smacking balls out of the park for them. If the likes of Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi and Andile Phehluwayo can live up to their international quality with the ball then the Royals should certainly be around when the knockout stages come along and they will only need one or two of those firecracker batters to come off to go all the way. The Royals could be the dark horses in this competition around the 4/1 mark.
Another team who have recruited well are the Pretoria Capitals, paired with the Delhi Capitals from the Indian Premier League. That partnership sees Anrich Nortje having been recruited as the leader of a bowling attack which is also likely to include the likes of Josh Little, Wayne Parnell, Adil Rashid and Migael Pretorius among others. No team is going to win a competition where an emphasis on entertaining has been placed on the teams without scoring runs but in Will Jacks, Rilee Rossouw, Phil Salt and Cameron Delport the Capitals certainly don’t lack in firepower. They might just be the surprise package at around 5/1.
The outsiders of the sextet in the inaugural campaign are the Sunrisers Eastern Cape, owned by the Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise. If you are a Hampshire fan back in England then this will be your team because T20 Blast winners Mason Crane and James Fuller are in the squad and it is coached by the Hawks coach Adi Burrell. There is a real English feel about this squad with Tom Abell, Jordan Cox and Brydon Carse all here too. Home stars Tristan Stubbs and Marco Jansen catch the eye and if the likes of JJ Smuts and Roelof van der Merwe get conditions to suit then the Eastern Cape might bloody a few noses at 17/2.
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Outright Betting
In an ideal world the Paarl Royals would have a gun overseas bowler in their unit but I’m just about happy enough to override that because of the power of their batting unit. I think the main thing to emphasise in this tournament is that you only have to be better than two teams in the early stage to make the semi-finals and I would be amazed if there isn’t enough within the Royals ranks with the ball for that to be the case, especially as their batters can probably give them 20 runs to play with.
Once we get into the knockout stages the two semi-finals are in Johannesburg and Centurion and the final is in Johannesburg and those are the two best batting venues in the country so the power the Royals have with the bat should come into its own. The Wanderers is definitely not big enough to contain this lot that is for sure. There are three or four internationals in the Paarl bowling stock and if those who haven’t reached that level and be inspired by the better players they are sharing a dressing room with I would be surprised if the Paarl Royals aren’t right there at the latter end of this thing.
Top Tournament Batter
I’m not sure what the sponsors Betway are on with their prices but their top tournament batter offerings are well out of line with the other firms and although in an ideal world I would be picking a player from the Johannesburg Super Kings or the Pretoria Capitals who play five home games on roads, Port Elizabeth isn’t much worse so the Sunrisers Eastern Cape batters shouldn’t be too disadvantaged which brings Aiden Markram right into play at a ridiculous 33/1.
Markram should be highly motivated in this series as he is captaining the team owned by the IPL franchise that he plays for. He bats in the middle order for the Sunrisers Hyderabad but he may well be opening the batting for the Eastern Cape and that is exactly where I want my players to bat. Markram isn’t seen as a huge hitter of the ball but he has a T20I strike rate of 147.73 and with the fielding restrictions if he opens the batting he should get off to good starts. Markram has three 50s to his name in the 50 over competition that has been played recently in South Africa and should be the man the Sunrisers bat around. He feels a huge price at 33/1.
Top Tournament Bowler
I’m not a massive fan of taking overseas players in these markets in franchise tournaments because you never know if they will suddenly get pulled out to manage their workload at short notice like Harry Brook has been already but I can’t ignore the 25/1 on Adil Rashid to be the leading wicket taker here. Admittedly he is going to be bowling at Centurion which isn’t going to help him too much but I’m happy to put that to one side purely because this isn’t an Indian or Pakistan tournament where the batters are adept at playing spin.
We see regularly that South Africa batters are not comfortable playing mystery spin and to be fair Rashid might need to be targeted because the seamers for the Pretoria Capitals might be tough to score from. Clearly the likes of Rashid Khan is a warm favourite but Adil Rashid has been foxing batters at international level for many years. He can spin the ball both ways and hasn’t been given the franchise cricket his talents deserve because the IPL rarely recruits overseas spinners. He is one who has dabbled in the IPL though which shows his class and if he hits the ground running here he can easily run into a high position in this tournament.
Tips
Back Paarl Royals to win SA20 2023 for a 2/10 stake at 5.00 with BetVictor
Back them here:
Back A.Markram Top Tournament Batter (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Betway (1/4 1-4)
Back A.Rashid Top Tournament Bowler (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Betway (1/4 1-4)
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