After a break of nine days, the Cricket South Africa Provincial T20 tournament, the premier T20 competition in the new domestic set up of South Africa cricket is set to be back. After the first round of matches, eight teams made it to the quarter-finals in batches of four each.
The first batch was selected from eight First division teams which will also compete in the domestic premier First Class four day competition. The second batch of eight teams was picked from a combination of seven Second division teams and South Africa Under-19.
From the first batch qualified the regulars in South African domestic set up Titans and Knights and along with the two new First division teams in Western Province and Western Districts, which previously played as one team called Cape Cobras. And it is these four teams that will be up against each other in the first two quarter-finals.
The two teams had very different journeys to the quarterfinal. While the South Western Districts were tied with two wins in their group alongside Lions and Western Province (two first division teams) but qualified as the top side on the basis of better net run rate.
The Titans on the other hand were only defeated by Knights in their group and won the rest of the two games against Rhinos and Tuskers to qualify for the quarter-finals.
Herschelle America, the top wicket-taker is from the South Western Districts while no player from the Titans features in the list of top three wicket-takers or run-getters.
The second Quarter-Final would take place between two first division teams in Western Province and Knights. While Western Province qualified as the second-ranked team from Group A and edged Lions on net run rate. They had also beaten Lions and Northern Cape Heat in the group and lost only to South Western Districts.
Knights, on the other hand, won two of its matches and its last game against Rhinos, who finished bottom of the table in Group B was abandoned without any ball bowled due to rain.
Migael Pretorious and Rilee Rossouw are the key members for Knights going into the quarter-finals while Zubyr Hamza and Wayne Parnell will come in handy for the Western Province side.
Both the matches will take place at Diamond Oval, Kimberley.