In the 27th match of the 2024 SA20, Pretoria Capitals will be taking on MI Cape Town at the Newlands in Cape Town. The match will be played on Thursday and will have the potential to end the top four hopes of at least one team.
Pretoria Capitals have had a pretty stop-start journey in this competition so far. They started their campaign with two consecutive defeats, before finding their feet and getting their first win in their third match.
But they have drifted away once again, with just one win in the last four matches. The Capitals might not be a confident lot coming into this game, but they will need to get their act together if they aim to get through to the next round of the tournament. With just 10 points in 7 games, the Capitals are currently 5th in the standings.
MI Cape Town had a good start to their season before it all fell apart. They lost their first match before winning the second, and that trend of a loss-win followed for the next couple of matches as well.
But that has been all about MI Cape Town’s mixed adventures as things have gone terribly downhill for Kieron Pollard’s team since their fourth match. They will come into this match on the back of four consecutive defeats and would want to win the double-header against the Capitals to stand a chance of qualifying for the playoffs.
What has happened so far?
Pretoria Capitals started their campaign with a 27-run defeat to Paarl Royals, where they could score only 133 runs while chasing a target of 161. Then in their second match, which was once again against Paarl, the Capitals suffered a 10-run defeat. The first win came in the third match against Durban’s Super Giants, where the team first put up a total of 204 runs, before restricting the opponents to only 187.
But the joy was short-lived for the Capitals, who then suffered back-to-back defeats. Joburg Super Kings handed them a six-wicket loss in the fourth match, while that was followed by a nine-wicket humbling against the Sunrisers Eastern Cape in a rain-curtailed affair in Gqeberha. There was a small resurgence when they defeated the Sunriders by 3 runs in the reverse fixture in Centurion, but their last fixture against the Super Kings was a washout.
MI Cape Town was up against Durban’s Super Giants in their first fixture, where they lost by 11 runs via the DLS method. But they were at their best in the second match, where they scored 243 runs against Joburg Super Kings before handing them a 98-run loss. Despite a valiant fight in the third match against Sunrisers Eastern Cape, MI lost by four runs, but they bounced back with an eight-wicket win against the Paarl Royals.
But what has transpired since that victory has been no short of a nightmare. Pollard’s men lost by 59 runs in the reverse fixture against the Royals, before they were handed a 36-run loss by the Super Giants. Those losses were followed by a 4-run defeat against the Sunrisers, while in their last game, Joburg Super Kings defeated them by 10 wickets in Cape Town.
Head to Head Record
When it comes to head-to-head records, the equation is completely in favour of the Capitals. These two teams met twice in the first edition of the tournament, with Pretoria winning both of those matches.
In the last match, which was in February 2023 at the SuperSport Park in Centurion, the Capitals won by one wicket in a thriller. After restricting MI Cape Town to 159 runs, Pretoria chased the total down in the last ball, losing nine wickets. Rilee Rossouw was their best batter, scoring 40 runs.
Key Players
Will Jacks (Pretoria Capitals): Among the very few reasons why the Capitals are still in the hunt for a place in the top four is the form of their English superstar Will Jacks. The all-rounder has been effective in every department. With the bat, he has scored 177 runs at an average of nearly 30 and a strike rate of over 180. With the ball, he has picked up six wickets by conceding less than 7 runs per over.
Will Jacks has been effective with both the bat and the ball for Pretoria Capitals
Jacks was at his best with the bat in the match against Durban’s Super Giants where he scored 101 runs. As for his bowling, he picked up two wickets each against both the Super Giants and the first-leg tie against the Joburg Super Kings.
Ryan Rickelton (MI Cape Town): MI Cape Town has barely had any positives this season, but Ryan Rickelton has been a one-man army for Pollard’s team. While no other batter from the team has been able to cross the 250-run hurdle, Rickelton has scored 405 runs at an average of nearly 60 and a strike rate of over 170.
The 27-year-old from Johannesburg played his best knock in the first-leg tie against Joburg Super Kings, where he scored 98 runs. Besides that, he scored 94 runs in the first match against Paarl Royals, and 87 runs in the first match against Durban’s Super Giants.
Predicted XIs
Pretoria Capitals: Philip Salt (wk), Will Jacks, Kyle Verreynne, Rilee Rossouw, Colin Ingram, Colin Ackermann, Senuran Muthusamy, Eathan Bosch, Wayne Parnell ©, Adil Rashid, Daryn Dupavillon.
MI Cape Town: Rassie van der Dussen, Ryan Rickelton (wk), Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Kieron Pollard ©, Dewald Brevis, Delano Potgieter, George Linde, Thomas Kaber, Kagiso Rabada, Nuwan Thushara.
Prediction
Although neither of the two teams have been up to the mark this season, Pretoria Capitals have looked there or thereabouts in terms of challenging the best teams. On the contrary, MI Cape Town has been completely out of sorts in the last four games. Hence, the Capitals will start this game as the favorites.