Red-hot Rickelton focuses on winning for MI Cape Town

Rather than wanting to make the national selectors look silly, Ryan Rickelton’s furious focus in the past few weeks is driven by a desire to succeed for an MI Cape Town team which he said “probably gets the best out of me”.

Rickleton’s second century in this season’s SA20 — an unbeaten 113 — set up a comfortable 36-run victory for Cape Town over the Joburg Super Kings at a rowdy Wanderers on Saturday night, keeping the defending champions firmly in contention for a play-off spot.

The 29-year-old opener is the tournament’s leading run-scorer, and Saturday’s effort saw him become the first batter to make multiple hundreds in a single season in the competition. He was a surprise omission from the Proteas T20 World Cup squad but says he no longer frets over that disappointment.

“I’m over [the World Cup] already,” he said. “I’m here to play cricket, here to win games for this team, and then I will fall back with the Lions and try to win the four-day competition for the Lions. I’m chilled with it. I want to find my rhythm with my batting and win games with this team, which is probably the most important thing for me now.”

Saturday was another dazzling performance, in which Rickelton smashed nine sixes, with his ball striking earning praise from the opposition’s head coach.

“He is a fine player,” said Stephen Fleming. “I read some of the comments that international cricket is a step up, and it is. But at this level he is a fine player. I’ve seen him around the world, with some fine performances. If he is the calibre of player you’re leaving out, then South African cricket is in good shape.”

Rickelton admitted his international limited-overs form has been bad this year because of a cluttered mind. “It’s a big mental game. That’s been my biggest challenge. A few months ago in India I didn’t know if I was coming or going — with what I was trying to do. I felt I was batting quite nicely in India. I just didn’t get any returns,” he said.

A pair of ducks in the two ODIs he played offer a reflection of those problems, while in five T20 Internationals this year, he has a highest score of 71. Nevertheless, his absence from the Proteas World Cup squad is still shocking, given his form not only in the SA20 in the past few years but also for the Mumbai Indians in last year’s IPL, in which he scored nearly 400 runs with a strike rate of 150.97.

“Jumping from team to team also gives you a new perspective. This team probably gets the best out of me; it frees me to play the way I want to play, and it takes me to the level I want to operate at 90% of the time.”

A meeting of MI Cape Town’s senior players said Rickleton has helped to refocus the squad before a critical week in the tournament. “We felt we needed seven man-of-the-match performances, and it would have to come from the seven of us. We got one [last Tuesday] and another tonight [Saturday]. We’ve been poor in different parts throughout the tournament and not been able to put together a complete performance.

“If we are to win this thing, then the senior group has to drive it. It can fall on other players, but if we are going to win it, the seven of us need to come to the party in different stages and sharpen up individually and as a team,” he said.

Though disappointed by the efforts of his bowlers, which he described as “nervy and underwhelming”, Fleming said the Super Kings wouldn’t panic before a trip to Gqeberha on Wednesday to face the table-topping Sunrisers Eastern Cape.

“We are still in a good position. I’ve been doing this for long enough to know that nights like this are better forgotten quickly. There are some lessons to take from it, and we will work on that. But the first positive is that we get some days off; we’ve been playing and travelling, playing and training, so it will be nice to refresh the minds before an away trip.”

Faf du Plessis may miss the remainder of the competition after injuring his thumb while fielding on Saturday. The Super Kings captain did not bat, and a medical assessment will be made in the coming days to determine the extent of the damage.