The second season of the SA20 finished this week, with Sunrisers Eastern Cape crowned champions for the second year running. Here’s how the English contingent fared in the competition.
17 English players featured in the competition, with four of them part of the champions’ squad. Tom Abell hit a crucial half-century in the final, smashing 55 off 34 balls which earned him the Player of the Match award. That innings took Abell’s run count for the tournament up to 286, with an average of 47.66 from nine games and a strike rate of 152.94.
Dawid Malan also featured in the final for Sunrisers, but was out in the second over of the match for six. Malan scored 210 runs at 23.33 from 10 matches in the competition. Liam Dawson was the other English player part of the final XI for Sunrisers. He had a tricky match, however, bowling three wicketless overs for 30 runs. Dawson featured in 11 matches for the champions in the competition, taking eight wickets with an economy rate of 7.74.
Adam Rossington was also part of the Sunrisers’ squad but was not selected for the final. His two innings in the competition returned scores of nine and four respectively.
2023 champions: Sunrisers Eastern Cape
2024 champions: Sunrisers Eastern CapeAiden Markram’s men have gone back to back 💪#SA20 pic.twitter.com/dK8TiZLHjE
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) February 10, 2024
On the losing side in the final was Reece Topley, who trapped Malan lbw early on in the match. Topley finished the tournament as the leading wicket-taker among the English players, with 13 wickets at 25.30. His best performance came early on against Joburg Super Kings, where he took figures of 3-19. Durban’s Super Giants also had Richard Gleeson in their squad, who played three matches in the tournament, taking five wickets.
The stand-out English player from the competition was Jos Buttler, who finished as the fourth-leading run-scorer with 408 runs. He scored an unbeaten 70 off 34 balls against Joburg Super Kings early on in the competition, opening the batting with Jason Roy for Paarl Royals. Buttler scored three fifties in the tournament, the joint third-most of anyone, and finished with an average of 40.80. Roy had a tougher time, only passing 50 once and averaging 21.54 in the tournament.
The breakout star of last year’s edition, Will Jacks, continued his run in the competition this time around, scoring a century for Pretoria Capitals against Durban’s Super Giants. Jacks hit 101 off 42 balls with nine sixes, inspiring a 17-run win. However, he only passed 40 once in his following six innings.
Phil Salt and Adil Rashid also played for Pretoria Capitals this year. Salt played ten matches with a high score of 39, while Rashid took eight wickets with an economy rate of 8.3.
MI Cape Town, who finished last in the group table with only three wins out of ten, had four English players in their squad, although Tom Banton didn’t play a game. Sam Curran endured a difficult run during the tournament, taking six wickets but conceding runs at an economy of 10.03 an over. His most expensive figures were 1-50 against Durban’s Super Giants, being hit for nine boundaries in his spell.
Olly Stone also had muted returns in the tournament, taking five wickets in as many matches. Out of the Cape Town English contingent however, Liam Livingstone‘s tournament was arguably the most disappointing, with 109 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of 104.80 and an average of 12.11. His three wickets came at 9.92 runs an over as well.
Joburg Super Kings were knocked out in the Eliminator in this year’s competition, having reached the semi-finals last year. Moeen Ali took five wickets for the Super Kings in 11 matches, and scored 167 runs at 28.96. Sam Cook also featured in two matches for the Super Kings, taking figures of 4-24 against Paarl Royals and 1-58 in his following game.
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