MI Cape Town and Sunrisers Eastern Cape are all set to lock horns against each other in the 8th Match of SA20 on Tuesday, January 16. Defending champions Eastern Cape are yet to open their account as they have a win and one no result to show in the two games. On the other hand, Kieron Pollard's Cape Town have one win in two outings.
Sunrisers' tournament opener against Joburg Super Kings was washed out before they went down to the Durban Super Giants in the second clash. Their pace bowling took a massive beating with Simon Harmer, Beyers Swanepoel and Ottniel Baartman - all leaking runs at more than 12 runs per over. Despite Tom Abell and Tristan Stubbs' fifties, the Eastern Cape went down by 35 runs in pursuit of 226.
MI Cape Town have a win and a loss to show in the points table. They were too beaten by DSG by 11 runs before they came back in the second one to record a 98-run win.
Newlands, Cape Town pitch report
The Newlands stadium will be hosting the first match of the tournament. It recently hosted India's second Test against South Africa earlier in the month. That game ended in a flash, becoming the shortest one in the Test history. ICC was forced to give it an 'unsatisfactory' rating too. There is enough assistance on the surface for the pace bowlers.
A similar pitch to that game is not expected but pacers are likely to have an upper hand on the batters. Talking about the T20 stats, there have been 38 games played at the venue so far with the chasing side leading 21-15 against the batting first sides.
Newlands, Cape Town - The Numbers Game
STATS - T20
Total T20 Matches - 38
Matches won batting first - 15
Matches won bowling first - 21
Average 1st innings Score - 151
Average 2nd innings Score - 138
Highest total recorded - 213/5 By ENGW vs PAKW
Lowest total recorded - 95/10 By IREW vs PAKW
Highest score chased - 192/1 By ENG vs RSA
Lowest score defended - 119/3 By RSAW vs WIW
Squads:
Sunrisers Eastern Cape Squad: Adam Rossington(w), Jordan Hermann, Tom Abell, Aiden Markram(c), Tristan Stubbs, Marco Jansen, Beyers Swanepoel, Liam Dawson, Simon Harmer, Daniel Worrall, Ottniel Baartman, Andile Simelane, Caleb Seleka, Patrick Kruger, Sarel Erwee, Ayabulela Gqamane, Temba Bavuma, Dawid Malan
MI Cape Town Squad: Rassie van der Dussen, Ryan Rickelton(w), Dewald Brevis, Liam Livingstone, Kieron Pollard(c), Sam Curran, Connor Esterhuizen, George Linde, Kagiso Rabada, Beuran Hendricks, Olly Stone, Nealan van Heerden, Chris Benjamin, Duan Jansen, Nuwan Thushara, Delano Potgieter, Grant Roelofsen, Thomas Kaber, Tom Banton
