Cricket South Africa’s premier franchise-based T20 format tournament, the SA20 has finally kicked-off at the Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town, with the opening match being played between the MI Cape Town and the Paarl Royals.
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At the time of writing, the home team MI Cape Town (MICT) were safely on the driver’s seat, having reached the 100-run mark with 9 wickets in the back, en route a modest target of 143 handed by the Royals.
The MICT bowling attack was led by the star English pacer Jofra Archer (4-1-27-3), who impressed straightaway post returning back to competitive Cricket action after eighteen months.
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As for the Royals, apart from wicket-keeper batter Jos Buttler (51 off 42) and skipper David Miller (42 off 31), none of their batters managed to get going before the likes of some of the big names in Rashid Khan, Sam Curran et al, apart from Archer.
SA20 full form
With a goal to make it the second-best T20 league in the world after the Indian Premier League (IPL), former South African captain Greame Smith, who also happens to be the commissioner of tournament has come up with the country first franchise-based league – the ‘SA20’.
While there is no official statement on the same, the name is referred to as the ‘South Africa 20’ league. The tournament’s name doesn’t have a ‘T’ or the word ‘league in it yes, but it has been done so deliberately.
As per Smith, they left out the ‘T’ specifically in order to show that their intention is different. Having said that, the tournament matches will indeed comprise of 20 Overs per side each.
Why has Mini IPL been named SA20?
Not exactly the mini IPL as there isn’t any participation of Indian players in the league, but all the six teams in the tournament are indeed owned by the six IPL franchises with almost similar IPL team names as well, although along with the addition of the names of the South African cities.
The names of the six SA20 franchise teams are – Durban Super Giants, Sunrisers Eastern Cape, Joburg Super Kings, the Pretoria Capitals, Paarl Royals, and MI Cape Town.
