Telford Vice's Blog, page 15

How MI Cape Town climbed the SA20 mountain from the bottom

“The guys want to win, they want to support each other. They understand that they take nothing for granted because a lot of them experienced pain in that dressingroom for the past two years.” – Robin Peterson

Telford Vice / Newlands

WHAT does it say about the SA20 that the team who finished last in both of the first two editions of the tournament top the table after this year’s league stage? And that the runners-up from the first two competitions are at the bottom of the standings this t...

Three dead rubbers, hanging on the SA20’s wall

“Finding ways to win at home is important, but unfortunately we have to move on now.” – Aiden Markram

Telford Vice / Cape Town

THREE dead rubbers. It’s not how the SA20 organisers would have wanted the league stage of their tournament to end, but that’s how the cookie has crumbled.

The die was cast when Mumbai Indians Cape Town beat Pretoria Capitals by 27 runs in Centurion on Friday. Sadly, Saturday’s games between Sunrisers Eastern Cape and Paarl Royals at St George’s Park, and betw...

From lunch at Newlands to a World Cup final in Kuala Lumpur

“It’s not about us – it’s for the country. The country really needed us to get to the final. And they need us to win it.” – Jemma Botha

Telford Vice / Cape Town

AND that’s lunch. The end of the first session on a day of Test cricket is a special time for reporters. In Hobart it means being presented with everything edible that, mere hours ago, had been swimming in the nearby Southern Ocean. At Edgbaston it means being fed food far too grand and sumptuous for the likes of them. At Chepauk...

MI Cape Town set the table, move the mountain

“It’s always nice being on the receiving end of the cheering. It’s not going to be so nice when I go back home on Friday and they’re going to boo me; that’s going to be weird.” – Corbin Bosch

Telford Vice / Newlands

THIS time last year Mumbai Indians Cape Town were one more loss away from crashing out of the running for a place in the SA20 playoffs. That defeat duly came, and they finished last — exactly where they had washed up in 2023.

At Newlands on Wednesday they reached the knock...

Uprooting uncle Joe

“As much as I will miss being here, I relish the opportunity of playing for England again.” – Joe Root

Telford Vice / Paarl

AT 8.57pm on Monday, Dayyaan Galiem finally got hold of a delivery as he intended. The ball didn’t so much fly into the night sky as burn a path through darkness still smouldering from another parched Paarl day.

Galiem had missed with three mighty swipes in the same over, the last of the game, and which was bowled by Wiaan Mulder. It started with Paarl Royals nee...

Pain comes to Paarl, where Durban’s butt is kicked

“My right groin is a little tight. I’m 35 now, but it’s just a tweak. I tried to get off before it could get any worse.” – David Miller

Telford Vice / Boland Park

AS the players completed their warm-ups on Boland Park’s outfield while time ticked towards the start of Paarl Royals’ SA20 game against Durban’s Super Giants on Monday, Lungi Ngidi aimed a kick at Keshav Maharaj’s backside. 

Ngidi is 1.93 metres tall and has a physique to match. You don’t need him kicking you. Especially wh...

Root stands the heat in Paarl’s kitchen

“He’s just an amazing human being. Whatever he does on the field, he’s better off the field.” – Trevor Penney on Joe Root

Telford Vice / Boland Park

“HOT Hot Hot …” Arrow’s 1982 soca hit belted around Boland Park more than a few times on Saturday. And well it might have: it was 37 degrees Celsius. In Sheffield on Saturday, it was four degrees Celsius.

As random as those 33 degrees of difference seem, they aren’t. Joe Root, whose 56-ball 78 not out took him to the top of the SA20 runsc...

SA20: too white on the day/night

“In the first tournament, we spoke about it. And then in the second tournament, we spoke about it. And the third tournament, we’re still talking about it. Yes, there aren’t enough black players in the SA20.” – Mfuneko Ngam

Telford Vice / Cape Town

“NOT a good look,” a television viewer observed as the XI chosen by Sunrisers Eastern Cape, twice champions of the SA20, for the opening match of their title defence against Mumbai Indians Cape Town at St George’s Park on January 9, appeared on...

Paarl on top halfway through SA20, but ‘won’t count our chickens early’

“In the past, we’ve had explosive players. Sometimes they come off, sometimes they don’t. There’s been more consistency this year in terms of planning and executing.” – Bjorn Fortuin

Telford Vice / Boland Park

YOU would need, apparently, two more days to walk from the Wanderers in Johannesburg to Newlands in Cape Town than it has taken to reach the halfway stage of this year’s SA20.

Eleven days in, and all six teams have played five of their 10 league games. Twenty more days — or 21 i...

Why so few close SA20 games?

“I know Graeme [Smith] wants close games, and I think all the spectators want close games. Hopefully we can get them.” – Albie Morkel

Telford Vice / Cape Town

THIRTEEN games in, this year’s SA20 is short on an important element in the alchemy that makes a tournament memorable: close matches. Only two games have been won by fewer than 10 runs and in just one has the target been chased down in the last over.

That was in Centurion on Saturday, when Paarl Royals overhauled Pretoria Capita...