MI Cape Town players celebrate a wicket during their SA20 match against Joburg Super Kings at the Wanderers on Saturday. Picture: Arjun Singh/Sportzpics/SA20 It took them some time to hit their straps, but opening batter Ryan Rickelton says MI Cape Town are still confident they can make a run for the SA20 playoffs in an attempt to defend their title. The Cape Town side went without a win in their first five games of the league stage, but they bounced back last week to beat the Joburg Super Kings by four wickets at Newlands.
And they went on to secure a 36-run victory in the return fixture against the Super Kings at the Wanderers on Saturday, anchored by Rickelton who bashed 113 not out off 60 balls at the top of the order, equalling his T20 career best and hitting his second century of the SA20 season. “It’s obviously nice to get back-to-back wins. I think we’ve lacked a lot of momentum in this tournament,” Rickelton said.
“So if we can start finding it now, that would be great, but we’ve put ourselves under a bit of pressure to find ourselves in this spot, so it’s awesome to get out there and put a performance in. “I still don’t think we’re complete just yet, but we are showing signs of improvement and hopefully we can get on a bit of a roll now and get some more wins under our belt.” The title holders have a big week ahead. They face Pretoria Capitals in Centurion on Monday (5.30pm start).
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They are then up against log leaders Sunrisers Eastern Cape in Cape Town on Friday and the same opposition in Gqeberha on Sunday in their last game of the league stage. Rickelton admitted they needed to dig deep, but he felt they could make further improvements as they looked to climb into the top four by the end of the week and put themselves in a position to retain their title. “We’ve got two wins now but we need to try make it three or four in a row,” he said.
“We’ve got some tough opposition. Pretoria are a really good side, and then Sunrisers are at the top, so we’ve still got a lot of work to do. “If we can brush up on a few areas and just keep trying to get better, hopefully we can win a few more.”
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