If the weather gods don’t have other plans, the SA20 final between Pretoria Capitals and Sunrisers Eastern Cape on Saturday, February 12 at the Wanderers, maybe a thrilling match. In Johannesburg, it has rained for the past three days, and the weather outlook for Saturday night is not very promising. The two semifinal matches over the past two days at the Wanderers and Centurion faced fears of rain, but the games went on as scheduled despite the difficulty of predicting the weather in this area. On a Saturday night, anything may happen.
Regarding the final, which will be shown on Sports 18 in India, it appears that the two top clubs in the league have qualified. Pretoria Capitals (7 wins, 32 points), who are currently in first place in the league, have outperformed the rest of the field and defeated Paarl Royals in back-to-back games, including the semifinal at the Wanderers on Wednesday. Sunrisers Eastern Cape (4 victories, 19 points), who are currently in third place, appear to have peaked at the appropriate time. They proved their battling prowess on Thursday night at Centurion when they successfully repelled a late surge from Joburg Super Kings. The Port Elizabeth-based club’s captain Aiden Markram led the way with a superb century, and after scoring 213 for five, the squad was in command. Super Kings attempted a late attack in the semifinal, but they were merely playing catch-up and weren’t really posing a threat to the opposition.
Few people would have given us much of a chance going into the competition, at least not based on the numbers. On the eve of the championship game, Markram said, “Credit must go to the guys in the squad, who will do almost anything to win, and we’ve been lucky to have those types of characters in our squad.” He praised the team as a whole and the support staff for their tenacity and spirit after a rocky start to the competition.
Wayne Parnell, the captain of Pretoria, desires that his squad have fun and entertain in the championship game. For us, it’s about having fun, entertaining people, and being bold because, in the end, finals have the power to either bring out the best in people or paralyze them. He said I believe we want to be the team that puts our best foot forward. Pretoria Capitals have prevailed in both of their league encounters with the Sunrisers.
