The Joburg Super Kings and MI Cape Town will play the fourth match of this season’s SA20 at the Wanderers.

Joburg will go into this fixture after sharing a washout with the Sunrisers Eastern Cape, while Cape Town lost their first match of the tournament against Durban’s Super Giants.

Joburg Super Kings

Joburg’s 2024 SA20 campaign had to weather a false start earlier this week, when they and the Sunrisers sat through a no-result amid plenty of rain in Port Elizabeth. Robbed of an opportunity to beat the reigning champions early in the tournament, the Super Kings now have the chance to beat the team that ended at the bottom of last season’s points table.

The Super Kings have a formidable collection of local talent for this match and the rest of the tournament. Captained by batter Faf du Plessis, and spearheaded by seamers Nandre Burger and Gerald Coetzee, Joburg will pose a hefty challenge to Cape Town at the Wanderers.

England’s Moeen Ali is among the best all-rounders in T20 cricket around the world. He has joined Joburg this season after opting for the SA20 ahead of the International League T20 in the United Arab Emirates. Last year, he withdrew from MI Cape Town’s squad to play in the ILT20.

With the backing of the Chennai Super Kings franchise in the Indian Premier League and the Lions in South African domestic competition, the Joburg team have plenty of personnel and resources at their disposal. But they need to ensure that support off the field translates to victories on the field.

MI Cape Town

MI Cape Town were looking good for victory in their first match of the SA20 season, after posting a total of 207 for four against Durban’s Super Giants. But ultimately Heinrich Klaasen had the final say with a crunching 83 to consign Cape Town to a 11-run defeat.

With a relatively short turnaround time between that defeat and this match, Cape Town need to promptly right those wrongs and put in a big performance against the Super Kings. A second successive defeat at the start of the tournament wouldn’t be becoming of the Mumbai Indians-backed Cape Town team.

Opener Ryan Rickelton was their top performer with the bat against Durban. He hit 87, which included six sixes, before captain Kieron Pollard and England all-rounder Liam Livingstone put the finishing touches on a big total. These three could be key for MI Cape Town again.

England fast bowler Olly Stone was disappointing against Durban. He didn’t vary his pace much – and coughed up expensive figures of one for 41 in three overs. It will be interesting to see if he is retained in the XI this time. The same can be said for MI Cape Town wrist spinner Thomas Kaber.