THE SA20 - 2024
Sunrisers complete a double, My team of the tournament and questions for Coach Rob Walter.
Unlike the first season, the second season of the SA20 was met with far less skepticism and more optimism and excitement. Apart from the fact that there has been a need for some serious sacrifices to be made in the name of the SA20, many people were excited and looking forward to the second season of the tournament. A few days after the Sunrisers lifted their 2nd SA20 title, one can say that the second season lived up to expectation.
In the past, most South African players, who do not play in other T20 leagues, did not play much T20 cricket. This may have delayed the evolution of South Africa as far as T20 cricket is concerned. For a while, South Africa was arguably the only country that still believed in picking or having a “specialist” anchor in the team. With more players getting the opportunity to play T20 cricket with overseas players, South Africa is beginning to catch up ever so lightly. This also means that players are being presented with the opportunity to grow their T20s. This is just one of a couple of things that have come through the SA20.
The tournament was nothing short of exciting and unlike most T20 tournaments, not every game was a bowler’s funeral and a slog fest. There were games where bowlers dominated and games where batters dominated. This is all that fans want to see, really. Watching bowlers get slaughtered every single match gets boring. Sunrisers and Durban Super Giants were the two best sides. The two coastal sides met in a final that unfortunately proved to be more one sided than what anyone could have hoped for.
Throughout the season, many players stood out. From Andile Phehlukwayo’s MotM performance in one of the opening matches to Heinrich Klaasen being player of the tournament for his performance throughout the tournament. Some players were good in patches while others were either consistently doing well or consistently doing badly. A team of the tournament? Probably not the easiest to pick in this format but let’s see what we can come up with.
My team of the tournament.
For batters (Average and Strike rate)
For Bowlers (Wickets and Econ)
1. RD RICKELTON – 58.88 @173.71
2. JC BUTTLER – 40.80 @143.66 🛫
3. TB ABELL – 47.66 @152.94🛫
4. JL DU PLOOY – 37.70 @159.07
5. T STUBBS – 60.20 @168.15 16dis (WK)
6. H KLAASEN – 40.63 @207.90
7. M JANSEN – 26.25 @177.96/20 @7.66
8. KA MAHARAJ – 15 @7.30(C)
9. NOOR AHMAD – 12 @5.82🛫
10. DJ WORRALL – 17 @7.23🛫
11. OEG BAARTMAN – 18 @6.95
12. AK MARKRAM
13. HE VAN DER DUSSEN
COACH: AD BIRREL
DISCLAIMER: The team is not solely picked on number of wickets and number of runs scored. I have considered Strike rate and batting position for batters. Economy played a bigger role for the bowlers. I have also used my opinion based on what I saw while watching the games.
While going through some numbers and scorecards on cricinfo, I bumped into an interesting aspect of the stats. The two aspects are: impactful batters and impactful bowlers. These are probably the most important stats, even though I have no idea how they are calculated. These are guys whose runs and wickets have had a bigger impact on the games for their teams. I decided to go ahead and pick The Most impactful XI based on those numbers.
Most Impactful XI
® R Rickelton
® J Buttler
® M BREETZKE
® L DU PLOOY
® W MULDER
® H KLAASEN
® M JANSEN
® K MAHARAJ
® D WORRALL
® O BAARTMAN
® L WILLIAMS
The above team is picked solely on the stats of most impactful batters and bowlers.
With the T20 World Cup being a few months away and the Proteas not having any T20i matches between now and the World Cup, the recently concluded SA20 may very well play a pivotal role in the selection of the squad. Will coach Rob Walter focus on SA20 performances or will he focus mostly on players’ career numbers and performances? This is one of those pre-world cup selection questions he may need to answer when selecting his team.
Not having any T20i’s building up to the World Cup means that the upcoming season of the IPL and the CSA Div 1 T20 competition could also be factored during selection. With that being said, one can only hope that CSA is in the process of organising a series or two so that Coach Walter can fine tune his team and look at possible combinations.
The SA20 was a success and an exciting one too. However, it may have left the T20 coach with more questions than before around his T20 WC squad. As a coach, I know he probably has a list of names in mind, but the big question is, how has the SA20 affected that list? Did everyone on his list perform? These are questions he will need to answer on his own. Perhaps, a topic for another day.