Stars align to give SA20 a glittering start

“Can all the sturvy people make some noise,” demanded the local comedian hired to rouse what was supposed to be a full house at Newlands on Tuesday. 

Predictably the “sturvy people” kept their reply somewhat muted. The SA20 isn’t really made for “sturvy people”. It demands you scream yourself hoarse (including if you’re doing commentary on TV apparently), clap your hands, wave your plastic flags and mind the fireworks and flame projectors. 

The whole thing was supposed to be loud from Sho Madjozi’s boisterous prematch show — weirdly played out in front of an empty portion of what they still call the Snake Pit — to the cricket which was supposed to contain a lot of big shot-making, but that was inhibited by a tired pitch. 

You can’t be tired in the SA20 — you’ll get left behind. 

The setting was perfect, Cape Town was at its postcard best  — deep blue sky, only a hint of breeze and the sexy sunset. The crowd was a mix of the elderly stagers for whom the New Year’s Test is a ritual, along with the youngsters, whom this tournament is targeting and who demanded their parents part with R700 for a replica MI Cape Town top. 

They greeted the calls to clap and chant “let’s go Cape Town, let’s go”, with the required enthusiasm as they did the attempts to applaud their new “hometown” heroes; Duan Jansen, Ryan Rickelton, Dewald Brevis — who was told by one spectator to move to the Mother City — and Jofra Archer. 

In his first serious engagement in 17 months, it was Archer who lit up the first half of the match. 

Thick gold chain dangling around his neck, he dismissed Wihan Lubbe with his third ball and had his old England teammate Jason Roy hopping about with deliveries in the mid-140s.

England T20 captain Jos Buttler, scooped Archer for six in his next over, a shot that seemed like it would change the momentum of the innings for the visiting Paarl Royals team. 

There was a 48-run partnership for the fourth wicket between Buttler, who scored 51 and Royals skipper, David Miller who finished with 42. Had Buttler stayed the Royals may have reached 180 — a defendable score on this sluggish surface — but he was dismissed by countryman Olly Stone, who delighted in removing the World Cup-winning skipper.  

Archer dismissed Miller and Ferisco Adams off consecutive deliveries in the penultimate over and finished with 3/27, a return that would have pleased him, the Mumbai Indians ownership who roped him into the tournament as their wild card, the England selectors who’ve included him in the squad for the one-day series against the Proteas later this month and his new home fans who were implored to engage in a rather unoriginal chant of the “here we go Archer, here we go”.   

Hopefully they can do a little better for Brevis for the next match. He rapidly garnered favourite status with a typically flamboyant half century which produced five opportunities for the supporters to gain their share of a million bucks for taking a clean one hand catch. 

No-one put their name in the hat for that competition, but it wasn’t for want of trying with one chap hurling himself onto the concrete in a vain attempt to do so. The MI Cape Town completed a comfortable eight-wicket win, with Brevis finishing not out on 70 off just 41 balls.

As a first display of South African cricket’s salvage mission, the SA20 organisers will be pleased with what they delivered. Enough big names performed well, the flags were waved, the music blared and by the end, even the “sturvy people” clapped.   

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