The SA20 competition continues on Monday and we have just the one match to enjoy as the tournament heads back to Gqeberha for the clash between the Sunrisers Eastern Cape and the MI Cape Town.
That means we have the team at the bottom of the table taking on the team at the top of it in what is a big match for the home side because they have lost their opening two matches and a third defeat starts to pile the pressure on them.
Sunrisers Eastern Cape
The Sunrisers Eastern Cape were the outsiders for the tournament with the bookmakers before a ball was bowled this season and after two pretty heavy defeats by T20 standards we have seen why that was the case. They haven’t been terrible in their matches by any means but the big concern going into the competition was whether their bowling would stand up to the scrutiny it was going to be under and quite simply it hasn’t done.
They have conceded 193/6 and 216/6 in their two matches to date and those kind of scores are always going to have them under pressure. The caveat to that is that both games have been against the Pretoria Capitals and on good pitches but nevertheless it is an area they need to improve in. If they do improve then their batting looks in decent enough shape having scored 170 in both games so while things haven’t started great for the Eastern Cape at least they know where they’ve gone wrong.
MI Cape Town
It has been an up and down start to the season for the MI Cape Town team with a win followed by a loss and then a win. They were a couple of balls away from both of their wins being bonus point ones which suggests when they are on song and going well they are a very good side. The obvious nuance so far is that when they have chased they have won but they have lost when they have batted first. That trend might need to change as the season goes on.
We might find out a lot more about MI Cape Town here because this will be their first match this season away from Cape Town and how teams adjust on different grounds is often the difference when the tallies are added up at the end. Cape Town look to have a very good top four and a bowling attack which should go well on any pitch but they need to make sure they take early wickets else they could be left vulnerable.
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Key Players
Tristan Stubbs was bought for big money by the Sunrisers Eastern Cape and they could do with some pyrotechnics from him. Given that two of the top three aren’t scoring runs at the minute it might be that he gets sent up the order.
Jofra Archer missed the last match to manage his workload but he should be back here and all his variations could be key for the MI Cape Town on what is likely to be a flat deck as they always are in this part of the country.
Betting
Gqeberha was a high scoring match in the 50 over competition which preceded this tournament and it was high scoring in the first game in this event as well and I see no reason why that trend isn’t going to continue. The first game here had the Pretoria Capitals three down in the powerplay and 80-5 at one stage in the first half of the innings. In reply the second innings team were 34-3 in the eighth over yet there were 363 runs in the match in total.
There might not be quite that many here purely because I would imagine the Sunrisers Eastern Cape batters might try and play out the four overs of Rashid Khan if they get the chance rather than let him run havoc through the team. The run line though is only 323.5 so there is still plenty of mileage in taking the over on that even if I don’t expect as many runs as normal. The pitch at St George’s Park is nearly always good and assuming it is here the runs can flow.
Tips
Back Over 323.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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