Week Two of the 2025 SA20 season saw spinners dominate, taking nearly as many wickets as the quicks despite bowling 200 fewer deliveries in total. Spinners averaged nearly seven runs per wicket fewer than Pacers while also going at 1.54 runs per over fewer.
There’s a clear discrepancy when it comes to how much turn each ground offers for the spinners with Durban (2.94°), Gqeberha (2.88°) and Johannesburg (2.68°) all turning a fair amount more than the three other grounds - Paarl, Cape Town and Centurion are all averaging below 2.00° of turn so far this season.
Left-handed batters had a troubling time facing finger spin this week suffering 15 dismissals at an average of just 14.53 - interestingly nine of these dismissals came against off-spin, playing into the conventional ‘spin matchup’.
Right-handers struggled against wrist spin losing 15 wickets at an average of 22 while striking at just 102 - left-handers looked far more comfortable in comparison, striking at nearly 129 with a far superior average, perhaps a trend to keep an eye on.
With all the focus on spin, it’s no surprise to see left arm wrist spinner Noor Ahmad among the standout performers despite his team sliding to the bottom of the table. He picked up 5 wickets this week at an average of 15.80 and an economy of 6.58.
What makes Noor such a dangerous customer on turning tracks is not just the purchase off the surface but also his ability to drift the ball through the air. When compared to other left arm wrist spinners in T20 cricket, Noor not only gets more drift but also drifts the ball away from the right-hander with a majority of his deliveries before turning the ball back in - a skill that separates him from fellow international left-arm wrist spinners Tabriaz Shamsi and Kuldeep Yadav.
Left-handers will be pivotal to reducing Noor’s threat as the tournament wears on, however as Sunrisers Easter Cape lefty Jordan Hermann found out, Noor has a sharp googly to attack the left-hander’s stumps - such a skillset makes him almost cheat code in the T20 game if there’s assistance on offer.
As is the case in any format of the game, making a bright start is crucial to a team’s success and that’s been no different so far in SA20.
Winning sides have lost half as many wickets in the PowerPlay when compared to losing sides, with the winning sides also scoring at just under one run per over quicker than losing sides.
The record of the two sides at the top of the table perhaps epitomise just how important PowerPlay batting is, with MI Cape Town’s Rassie van der Dussen (97 runs) joining the Paarl Royals duo of Joe Root (96 runs) and Lhuan-dre Pretorius (93 runs) as the top three PowerPlay run scorers so far this season.
The Royals left-right opening pair of Root and Pretorius have quickly become a stellar batting partnership in SA20 despite neither boasting experience in the competition. Only once in four matches have both batters been dismissed inside the Powerplay, with at least one of them ensuring an opener is set after the Powerplay to help what is at times a shallow Royals batting lineup.
Pretorius has been particularly brutal facing the second half of the PowerPlay overs once he’s got his eye in, striking at 196 in overs 4-6. Root meanwhile is only one of two openers yet to be dismissed inside the opening three overs of the innings, the other being Van der Dussen.
Van der Dussen isn’t the quickest of PowerPlay scorers, with a strike rate of only 118 inside the first six overs so far this season but he does make up for it with the security of his wicket - five games in and he’s yet to be dismissed inside the PowerPlay this season.
What makes Van der Dussen’s approach viable is the addition of Ryan Rickelton alongside him at the top of the order - Rickelton raced to 30 off 16 inside the PowerPlay on his way to 89 (39) during MICT’s win against Joburg Super Kings on Saturday, with Van der Dussen, still scoring 28 off 20, keeping things ticking at the other end - they look to be perfect yin and yang opening pair for table toppers MI Cape Town.
Comments