What Is The SA20 League?
The SA20 league is the new domestic T20 tournament in South Africa, featuring 6 franchises. Teams play each other twice in a round robin format before playoffs decide the finalists. The six franchises are Durban’s Super Giants, Joburg Super Kings, MI Cape Town, Paarl Royals, Pretoria Capitals and Sunrisers Eastern Cape.
When Is The SA20 League Played?
The first edition of the SA20 league commenced in December 2022, the second will begin in December 2023.
History Of The SA20 League
The SA20 league was established in 2022 after the collapse of previous domestic South African T20 Leagues. Cricket South Africa remains the majority stakeholder, but broadcaster Supersport and former IPL CEO Sundar Raman have a fifty percent share between them. The team names and kits are an indication of the IPL’s influence, in fact all six franchises are directly owned by the Indian Premier League franchises they represent. The first crossover of this type in T20 franchise cricket. The first edition was deemed a real success for South African cricket with high interest for TV audiences and encouraging attendances at matches. Former South Africa captain Graeme Smith, commissioner of SA20 even suggested that “cricket in my country was dying” before the introduction of the competition. Sunrisers Eastern Cape won the first edition of SA20.
Top Run Scorers In The SA20 League
Brutal Paarl Royals and England cricket team star Jos Buttler was top batter at the first SA20 scoring 391 runs in 11 innings, hitting 4 fifties with a top score of 70.
Top Wicket Takers in the SA20 League
Left arm spinner Roelof Van der Mere and speed merchant Anrich Nortje of the South Africa national cricket team both took 20 wickets in the first season of the SA20 league.
Memorable Games In The SA20 League
MI Cape Town were one of the fancied teams going into the first SA20 league season with a team boasting South Africa star players Rassie van der Dussen and Kagiso Rabada adding to International talent such as Rashid Khan. They however headed into their final group match needing a win to make the playoffs against leaders Pretoria Capitals. Batting first MI committed the cardinal sin in limited overs cricket of not making use of the allotted overs being bowled out for 159 with two balls of the twenty overs unused. Van der Dussen led the way with 51 from 29 deliveries but wickets in regular intervals slowed their progress.
In reply Pretoria also struggled to put together a match winning partnership and found themselves needing 12 from the last 2 overs win just two wickets in hand, 9 from the penultimate over seemed to have sealed MI’s fate but Sam Curran had other ideas only conceding 1 and taking a wicket needing from the first 5 balls of the death over leaving the Capitals needing 2 from 1, Josh Little chipped the ball over the infield he and Wayne Parnell scampered the two to eliminate one of the favourites. The Capitols would go on to lose the final to Sunrisers Eastern Cape by four wickets.
Similar Competitions To The SA20 Cricket League
The SA20 league has been described as a ‘mini IPL’ so those interested in this competition may want to check out our section on the Indian Premier League. If T20 is your preferred variation of cricket, then the ICC T2O World Cup has also been fully detailed on site!
