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Joburg Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming bemoaned a poor performance in all areas in his side's defeat to the Pretoria Capitals. Picture: SA20/SPORTZPICS
Joburg Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming bemoaned a poor performance in all areas in his side's defeat to the Pretoria Capitals. Picture: SA20/SPORTZPICS

Some of the world’s leading coaches have been left befuddled by the low scoring in this season’s Betway SA20, with the country’s pitches — but more plausibly the impatience of batters — the standout feature of the tournament’s third season. 

There have been nine wins accompanied by bonus points this year, reflecting what Adrian Birrell, head coach of two-time champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape, said were a lot of one-sided matches.

“There’ve been lots of low scores around the country. I don’t think the pitches have been quite as flat [as expected] and there have been a lot of bonus points,” Birrell said. 

In the Sunrisers’ eight matches before Wednesday’s encounter with MI Cape Town, six involved an outcome with a bonus point, three in their favour. 

Few matches have gone to the final over, but two of the four that did, involved the highest totals made thus far: the Pretoria Capitals lost by two runs to the Durban Super Giants in the first week when chasing 209, and the Paarl Royals successfully chased down 213 with two balls to spare against the Capitals in Centurion. 

Those four totals are the only 200-plus scores in the competition, and with just more than a week to go, this year’s SA20 will struggle to match last season’s sum of 15 totals of 200 or more runs in an innings. In addition, while there were three individual centuries in the first season and four in the second season, the highest score thus far is Lhuan-dre Pretorius’  97.

Pitches are to blame in one sense, particularly how the conditions change in day-night matches, according to Joburg Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming.

“We have found a distinct difference between the last part of the day and then moving into the evening, even if the wicket is dry [and assists spinners]. Paarl is a good example. It is very dry but then teams are chasing very well in the evening,” said the former New Zealand captain. 

Fleming is in his third year as Joburg’s head coach and has experience from working in the IPL, Major League Cricket and The Hundred, and has previously admitted he’s found it challenging compiling a starting team for many venues countrywide because sometimes how a surface looks does not match how it plays. 

There are also preconceived ideas about different venues based on history and statistics — and as Tuesday night’s match at SuperSport Park illustrated, prioritising that over how a particular pitch is playing can cause trouble. 

Super Kings captain Faf du Plessis said after his side made 99/9 that he’d not seen a Supersport Park surface spin as much so early. However, he and Fleming felt the batters should have done a better job of adapting. 

“If you find yourself in a situation where it’s not happening, then get a score on the board that can challenge,” said Fleming. 

“The trend of the modern player is that if it’s too hard they don’t find a method for long enough and they are very keen to hit themselves out of trouble. We fell into that today.

“It’s been a trend of the tournament, where batting first is a bit of a challenge — not only because of conditions but maybe a bit of players’ mindset and their ability to work themselves out of tough situations.

“Sometimes you turn up at grounds and maybe the expectation is for a high-scoring game. The wicket today was challenging and we didn’t adapt.”

Ironically the table-topping Paarl Royals, who have won all their home matches, are yet to win with a bonus point. However, they — better than any other team — have adapted to conditions, from chasing down that 213 in Centurion to using five spinners to bowl all 20 overs in the innings in their win against Durban last Saturday. 

“We are trying to be really smart about what we have in front of us and staying present in every game, which has served us well,” said Joe Root, the Royals opener who is the second-highest run-scorer in the tournament, behind his teammate Pretorius. 

“It’s not always pretty but it’s got us over the line. Taking your ego out of it and getting the job done is an important part of T20 cricket, especially on these kinds of surfaces where it’s not always going to be 200 vs 200.”

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