Unlike virtually every other side in the SA20, when it comes to the Joburg Super Kings, you’re just not sure what you’re going to get.
The Paarl Royals, who the Super Kings face at SuperSport Park on Thursday in the “eliminator”, have Ottniel Bartman, David Miller (maybe), Rubin Hermann and Sikander Raza as the main threats.
The Pretoria Capitals have grabbed their playoff place thanks to West Indies duo Sherfane Rutherford and Shai Hope.
The Sunrisers Eastern Cape come at you from all sides.
But what do the Super Kings offer? Who are their main players?
Can you name anyone in their team? Answering the latter is hard, because they’ve used the equivalent of nearly two teams over the round-robin phase — and their two best-known players won’t be available on Thursday.
Englishman James Vince will be their third captain this season after Faf du Plessis (thumb) and, more concerningly for the Proteas, Donovan Ferreira (shoulder) saw their participation in the tournament prematurely ended.
We’ve had contributions from the whole squad. Different people have stood up at different times.
— James Vince
Rilee Rossouw, who started the competition with a couple of dazzling forties, also got injured; the American Shubham Ranjane made an impression but left after six games, while various other ailments and the balance of starting teams and players being out of form have stretched resources to the limit. They’ve used 21 players in three weeks — the next highest number of players used is 17, by three other teams.
Vince has been JSK’s leading run-scorer with an aggregate of 216 runs, with Dian Forrester (172) and Matthew de Villiers (151) the next best. They’re both playing in the SA20 for the first time.
None of their bowlers have taken 10 wickets in the tournament, and it’s revealing that 46-year-old Imran Tahir was called on to bowl a crucial spell in Paarl on Monday, in which he picked up two wickets to help them seal a play-off spot.
“We’ve had contributions from the whole squad. Different people have stood up at different times,” said Vince.
“Players who wouldn’t necessarily have had the opportunities have had to stand up. I’ve got a lot of confidence in the team that tomorrow, hopefully, one or two of us will put in a match-winning performance. It only takes one or two players to have a day out in the T20 format for a team to come out on the right side.”
Vince wasn’t sure of Ferreira’s status but said it was unlikely he would feature even if JSK got through to Sunday’s final. Cricket SA will provide an update on Ferreira and Miller on Thursday when the Proteas squad for the West Indies series will be announced.
The initial prognosis about Miller’s groin injury wasn’t optimistic, and if he is unavailable, it would be a devastating blow to the Royals, who, despite qualifying for the play-offs every year, have not played in a final.
As they’ve done in previous seasons, they’ve failed to maintain form and momentum in the latter stages of the round-robin phase — this year losing both of their last two matches.
Miller’s likely absence would mean either Keagan Lion-Cachet or Kyle Verreynne will start against JSK, with the latter’s experience and the fact he made a century at SuperSport Park when playing for the Capitals likely to give him the nod.
Thursday’s winner will be in action again at Wanderers on Friday night to face the losing team from Wednesday’s first qualifier between the Capitals and Sunrisers.
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