Will the most successful IPL franchise translate their success to SA20?

image-lcloeq0dMI Cape Town (Source: Twitter)

T20 leagues are taking over the cricketing world gradually. The newest addition to the list of umpteen leagues is South Africa's own T20 League-SA20. 

The uniqueness of this league is that all six participating teams are owned by franchises from the Indian Premier League. Therefore the rivalries which were ripe in the Mega league will catch momentum in the rainbow nation.

We will analytically dissect and try to find out the strength and weaknesses of each team. In this article, we take a look at MI Cape Town. 

Let us first take a look at the squad of MICT and see what they have.

Batters: Dewald Brevis (Middle Order), Rassie van der Dussen (Top Order), Ryan Rickelton (Wicketkeeper and Top Order Batter), Wesley Marshall (Top order), Grant Roelofsen (Wicketkeeper and middle order batter).

All-rounders: Liam Livingstone ( Lower order power hitter and spin bowler), Sam Curran (Medium pace bowler and lower order batter), George Linde (Left arm spin bowler and lower order batter), Delano Potgieter (Middle order batter and medium pace bowler), Odean Smith (Medium pace bowler and lower order power hitter), Rashid Khan (Right arm wrist spinner and lower order power hitter)

Pacers: Kagiso Rabada (Pace Bowler), Duan Jansen (Pace Bowler), Beuran Hendricks (Medium Fast Bowler), Olly Stone (Medium Fast Bowler), Ziyaad Abrahams (Pace Bowler). 

Spinner: Waqar Salamkheil (Left arm wrist spin)


Strength

1.Well-sorted batting line-up: The team has a good distribution of batters for mostly every role. While Ryan Rickelton and Rassie van der Dussen will be in charge of giving them solidity at the top order, Dewald Brevis and Liam Livingstone will be mainly in charge of giving them powerful finishes. 

image-lclohrvoRyan Rickelton (Source: Twitter)

2. Balanced bowling attack: The bowling attack of MICT looks very potent. In Kagiso Rabada, Olly Stone and Ziyaad Abrahams they have got some seriously threatening opening bowlers. Meanwhile, Rashid Khan, George Linde and Waqar Salamkheil will form the spin department of the team.

Weakness

1.Lack of depth in the death bowling department: MICT will be using Sam Curran as their prime death bowling option. The other options will be Beuran Hendricks and using Rabada. So, the fact lies that even though Sam Curran has done well in the death overs of the T20 World Cup 2022, he sometimes takes the stick in the final overs. Rabada also is a bowler who might pick up wickets but can get hit in depth. So, this is the only slight spot of bother in this squad. 

X-Factor

Dewald Brevis and Ziyaad Abrahams: Dewald Brevis is a youngster who is being spoken of with a lot of hope by cricket experts in recent times. He has also displayed some impressive hitting skills in whatever chances Brevis has got. He might be the x-factor in batting for MICT in the tournament. 

image-lclojdpcDewald Brevis (Source: Twitter)

Ziyaad Abrahams has been in good form in recent domestic tournaments. His presence might bolster the bowling attack of the MICT during the tournament. 

Probable Playing XI

  1. Ryan Rickelton (wk)
  2. Wesley Marshall 
  3. Rassie van der Dussen 
  4. Dewald Brevis
  5. Liam Livingstone ✈️
  6. Odean Smith ✈️
  7. Sam Curran ✈️
  8. Rashid Khan (c) ✈️
  9. George Linde
  10.  Kagiso Rabada
  11. Ziyaad Abrahams

Also Read: SA20: Live Blog, Streaming, Squads and all the details from the auction