Capitals, MI Cape Town set for crunch encounter

North meets South at Centurion on Monday evening in a pivotal clash in the quest for a place in the Betway SA20 play-offs.

Both Pretoria Capitals and MI Cape Town will be buoyed by crucial victories over the weekend that has thrown the Betway SA20 table wide open heading into the business end of the season with all six teams still in contention for the knockout stages.

Two-time champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape suffered a setback at home to Durban’s Super Giants in their bid to become the first side to lock down a play-off spot on Sunday but remain at the summit with 19 points from seven matches.

DSG’s tense two-run victory was critical in the context of the overall competition as it lifted Lance Klusener’s team into fifth position (12 points), which allowed all the chasing teams to close the gap on the Sunrisers with only four points separating the first and fourth-placed Paarl Royals.

Capitals are currently third on 15 points, with three round-robin matches remaining, and could potentially surge to the top of the table should they defeat MI Cape Town with a bonus point at Centurion.

They will certainly be relying on their in-form West Indian duo Shai Hope and Sherfane Rutherford to lead the charge.

“We're going back home where it's going to be a bit of pace, a better wicket but I think what’s important for us is just continue to win in those key moments and continue to assess very early,” said Rutherford.

The big-hitting left-hander, who boasts the leading average of 80.50 in the competition at a strike-rate of 173.11, believes the Capitals could be peaking when it matters most.

“I think so far the tournament hasn't been the start we wanted but I think as a team we get in form at the right time and I think that what's the most important thing and most excited for us,” he said.

MI Cape Town have equally discovered the form that saw Robin Peterson’s lift their maiden Betway SA20 crown last season. The defending champions have brushed off a sluggish start by completing the “El Clasico’ double over Highveld rivals Joburg Super Kings.

Crucially, their potent top-order combination of Ryan Rickelton and Rassie van der Dussen are striking the ball sweetly again, with Rickelton becoming the first batter in Betway SA20 history to score multiple centuries after his undefeated 113 at the Wanderers on Saturday evening.

The defending champions, who trail DSG by two points but having played a game less, Play-offs aspirations remain in their control but face arguably the toughest route.

Their Capitals bout on Monday is followed by home and away clashes against the Sunrisers to close out their round-robin participation.

Rickelton, who is the only batter to pass 300 runs in Betway SA20 Season 4 thus far, stated that MI Cape Town’s “senior players” have taken on the responsibility of fronting up to the challenge.

“We spoke about it just before we played Joburg in Cape Town that we had a bit of a seniors meeting and said, ‘You know, we have six games if we want to win this thing and we need Player of the Match (performances) in six matches from the guys in the room’.

“So, we're trying to obviously take a lot of the load as senior players. We know that if we're going to win this thing, it has to come from the six, seven of us in that group.

“And all of us have to put our hands up at various stages now. We've fallen short the first couple of games but it is kind of do or die right now. So glad to get the win.

“We need to just obviously take the momentum into Monday night and try to get on a bit of a roll.”