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For the MI Cape Town, who have finished bottom for two consecutive SA20 seasons, the biggest talking point is less about who would play at Newlands but the one who wouldn’t.
Ben Stokes has been ruled out of the SA20 with a hamstring injury. With the England Test skipper out for three months, MI Cape Town have been left short-staffed by one of the most dynamic players in the game. However, as IPL franchises have found out in the last few years, his fitness concerns end up creating quite a challenge. Something MI Cape Town will have to make their way around this time.
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Captained by Rashid Khan, MI Cape Town have tried and plugged the gaps from the previous two seasons by spending the biggest of the six franchises at the auction. MI Cape Town splashed R4.3 million on bringing Reeza Hendricks into the fold.
Hendricks, who spent the last two seasons at Joburg Super Kings, has scored 411 runs from 22 matches at an average of 24.17 and strike rate of 109.60. In his last appearance for the Proteas, he smacked 117 runs against Pakistan which only bodes well for the team when they take on defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape in the tournament curtain raiser.
The CSA T20 Player of the Year for 2024 will join forces with Lions teammates Rassie van der Dussen and Ryan Rickelton at MI Cape Town.
“Reeza Hendricks adds a lot to the group in terms of his skill,” MI Cape Town coach Robin Peterson said. “He is an international, quality cricketer with lots of experience at the top of the order.”
The batting order looks solid with Rickelton, Van der Dussen, Hendricks and Dewald Brevis. The quartet are usually stable heads and have the propensity to create plenty of damage.
The new beginnings
MI Cape Town have quite a few first-timers to the league in their midst. New Zealand seamer Trent Boult, rookie fast bowler Tristan Luus, Afghanistan allrounder Azmatullah Omarzai and veteran spinner Dane Piedt make up the new faces in SA20.
Boult, who retired after the T20 World Cup last year, is expected to slot right into coach Robin Peterson’s plans. Alongside Kagiso Rabada, MI have a stellar duo to share the new ball.
Interestingly, when Boult takes the field, he will compete for the fourth different Mumbai Indians-owned team having played in the IPL, for MI New York in the MLC and MI Emirates in the ILT20.
At the auction, MI Cape Town added batter Colin Ingram to their squad, picking him for his base price of R 175,000. Offspinner Piedt, picked up for R175,000, will bolster the spin-bowling options. He has worked with coach Peterson before, as his teammate at Cobras.
Best of the rest
After Rabada and Boult, the onus with the ball lies on Rashid, Azmatullah Omarzai and Tristan Luus. Lack of quality spin bowling options could hurt the team if the seam bowling doesn’t fire as planned.
Another challenge lies in lack of big-hitters. The ones that can get going from ball one and hit the leather out of the park immediately. Brevis can do that job but that is just about it.
MI Cape Town squad
Colin Ingram, Dewald Brevis, Reeza Hendircks, Rassie van der Dussen, Connor Esterhuizen, Chris Benjamin, Ryan Rickelton, Thomas Kaber, George Linde, Delano Potgieter, Corbin Bosch, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Trent Boult, Dane Piedt, Kagiso Rabada, Nuwan Thushara, Tristan Luus
MI Cape Town SA20 record:
2023: Sixth
2024: Sixth
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