Almost there, to the playoffs. The defending champions have added a third wooden spoon to their solitary winners medal and now the under-achieving Durban Super Giants need a favour from the Paarl Royals to help them limp into fourth place if they beat the Joburg Super Kings in the final group match.
Paarl Royals, Sunrisers and Capitals have been comfortably the best three teams and deserve their play-off places.
MATCH OF THE WEEK: Not even Harry Houdini could have dreamt up an escape act like the one Pretoria Capitals managed against the Joburg Super Kings at the Wanderers on Saturday.
Padlocked and thrown to the bottom of a barrel at 7-5, they escaped to 143-6 and a 21-run victory thanks to a sixth wicket stand of 103 in 12 overs between Dewald Brevis (53) and Sherfane Rutherford (74) and Keshav Maharaj’s 3-15. Astonishing.
BATTER: Aiden Markram endured a modest season for the first two weeks but 66 (46 balls) and a wonderful century (108 from 58 balls) did much to help his team into fourth place.
Playoff hopes now rest with Paarl Royals – if they beat JSK on Monday, Markram and the Super Giants live to fight another day.
Sikander Raza was the unplayable ‘mystery man’ with his combination spin in his first three games for Paarl but turned batting maestro with a last-ball six against David Wiese to win a thriller against DSG.
Four days later, against the same opponents, he bowled 4-0-57-0. At least allrounders get nominated in two categories.
BOWLER: Corbin Bosch’s 4-34 helped MICT to a last-gasp victory against SEC but there were better, less eye-catching performances.
DSG’s spinners, Simon Harmer (4-1-13-1) and Sunil Narine (4-0-18-2), tying the Paarl Royals into knots was a sight to behold. And Gideon Peters’ unfiltered pace (4-1-32-3) for Pretoria Capitals against MICT caught the eye.
Tristan Stubbs would never, normally earn a mention in this category. But when Adam Milne limped off after three balls, the SEC captain manfully delivered 2.3-0-11-0 of what he would call off-spin.
PERFORMANCE: 21-year-old James Coles will remember his debut for SEC for a while. A match-changing 61 from 34 balls transformed a modest total to 178-5 and he followed it up with two vital wickets (2-34) to help dismantle JSK for 117 to earn a bonus point victory.
But the performance of the week goes to Sherfane Rutherford. Any of them. Take your pick.
OVERSEAS PLAYER: Sherfane Rutherford has been player-of-the-match in four of the last five games for PC.
Let that sink in, 53 from 27 balls against MICT, 29 from 27 against the Royals and 74 from 50 against JSK. Over 300 runs in the tournament at a strike rate of 180+.
But Chris Green deserves a mention. Not only did the Australian off-spinning allrounder make a last-minute 18-hour dash to Gqeberha from Sydney
TALKING POINT: The SA20 has been widely acclaimed as the ‘next best’ after the IPL which is, of course, unmatchable. And never will be. But how secure is the SA20, despite the plentiful praise and plaudits from pundits around the world?
Pending sales in the Big Bash League could generate hundreds of millions of dollars to private investors posing a threat to South Africa’s tournament. Really? Not likely.
Time zones play a huge role but the ‘gees’ and quality of the SA20 surely places it significantly ahead of the competitors, ILT20 and BBL.
LOOK OUT FOR: Joburg Super Kings made a barnstorming start to the tournament and were early log-leaders. Injuries kicked in, as they did last year with dramatically detrimental effect, and now they have lost influential captain Faf du Plessis.
Ten days ago they looked odds-on to finish top of the log. Now they need to beat Paarl Royals in their last game just to make the playoffs.