Rutherford powers Pretoria Capitals to the top of the SA20 log

Dazzling shot-making from Sherfane Rutherford and a dynamic fielding display led by Dewald Brevis saw the Pretoria Capitals claim a third successive win which, thanks to the bonus point picked up on Monday night against MI Cape Town, earned them top spot in the SA20.

Rutherford, who’s been the Capitals’ best player this season, produced some industrial hitting, scoring his first half-century in the competition, to change the momentum of the Capitals’ innings and ultimately the match, which they won by 53 runs.

The defending champions, who’d dragged themselves back into play-off contention with back-to-back wins against the Joburg Super Kings, were left shell shocked, and instead of a required rate of eight runs an over, they needed to bat closer to 10 from the start after being set a target of 186.

Rutherford and Brevis changed the rhythm of their team’s innings, after Kagiso Rabada had delivered another fast bowling masterclass in his first three overs.

After dismissing Conor Esterhuizen with a beautifully disguised slower ball, Rabada, having watched Jordan Cox flick a six over fine-leg, flummoxed the Englishman with a 144kph yorker the next delivery.

That left the Capitals struggling on 89/4 in the 13th over.

But it was against Rabada that the home team continued their fight back, with Brevis smoking a pair of sixes — the second a one-handed slash over third man — in the 17th over.

Brevis ended with 34 off 19 balls — an important knock for him after he’d struggled in the first half of the tournament — sharing a partnership of 69 with Rutherford, who blasted five sixes in his 53, facing 27 balls.

In the last five overs of their innings, led by Rutherford, who pulverised Trent Boult, the Capitals scored 84 runs, flattening Mi Cape Town’s resolve and leaving their playoff chances hanging by a thread.

The momentum created with the bat continued with the ball, with Lungi Ngidi, Gideon Peters and Andre Russell —playing his first match in the tournament — each claiming wickets.

Peters struck twice in his second over, thanks to Brevis’s outstanding catching, with the second of those grabs, a crowd-pleasing beauty in which the competition’s most expensive player threw himself forward to his right to end Afghanistan import Karim Janat’s brief stay at the crease.

Peters, a lively fast bowler, finished with 3/32, conceding a couple of late sixes to Reeza Hendricks, who finished with an unbeaten 68.

The Capitals face Paarl Royals in Centurion on Thursday, while Cape Town have a double-header against the Sunrisers Eastern Cape, with the first of those, a must win fixture at Newlands on Friday night.

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