Royals aiming to snap Capitals' hot streak

Pretoria Capitals and Paarl Royals will be hoping to join Sunrisers Eastern Cape in the Betway SA20 playoffs when they meet at Centurion on Thursday evening (5.30pm).

Two-time champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape secured a fourth consecutive play-off spot after a comfortable victory over Joburg Super Kings at St George’s Park.

The battle for the top two spots, with the prize being able to feature in Qualifier 1 at Kingsmead, is particularly hotly contested with Capitals (20) and Royals (19) sitting just below the Sunrisers (24).

Capitals are enjoying a three-match winning streak and will be full of confidence when they host Royals, who are also fresh off a brilliant last-ball win over Durban’s Super Giants.

It sets the stage for another classic encounter between these two high-quality sides. The Capitals won the first-round fixture at Boland Park by 21 runs.

Seamer Gideon Peters believes the Capitals’ success can be attributed to prioritising the basic elements of the game.

“We just said, listen, let's try to do the basics a bit better. We've seen so much, like people in T20 cricket try to do so much and then sometimes you can get bowled out quickly or you can get whacked wherever,” Peters said.

“We said, let's try to do the basics a bit better, like hitting top of off and playing good cricket shots. I think that's worked for us and we've really stayed tight as a group.

“Even though we've had bad losses, it never felt like the group was spreading apart. I think that's kind of why we've done well in the last three games.”

Peters has been one of the mainstays of Capitals’ recent success with seven wickets in three matches at an average of 11.14 and economy of 7.09.

The injury-plagued fast bowler’s celebrations have become a hallmark of Betway SA20 with Peters leaping into the air, veins bulging and arms pumping. He attributes this outpouring of emotion to his long spell on the sidelines when he was unable to take the field.

“I'm just extremely happy to be back on the cricket field to be very honest with you. Just playing games. Of course, it's never nice getting hit for six or whatever. But even that's kind of part of the fun of it again, going through those emotions. So, it's just awesome playing cricket again. Yeah, I'm so grateful for doing this,” he said.

Royals batter Rubin Hermann, who also rediscovered his form by taking his team over the line with an undefeated half-century in the last game, is also elated that he has been able to find his rhythm again.

“Obviously, I didn't have the greatest start to the tournament but I'm happy to get a bit of form now in the latter half. I always told the coaches I'll win them a game, and luckily, I spoke it into existence,” Hermann said.

The left-hander was also cognisant of the fact that the season has now reached pressure point.

“Obviously it's getting to ‘Fergie Time’ now into the tournament. And obviously we want to end top two, because we're going to have two bites of the cherry in the latter half,” he said.

“It's obviously within our grasp and we know we've got the characters; we've got the team. Let's see how far we can take and hopefully we can end top two.”