Relief for Pretoria Capitals after raking in first points of SA20 season

The Pretoria Capitals were understandably relieved, according to middle-order batter Colin Ingram, after picking up their first points of the SA20 season with their victory over Durban’s Super Giants in Centurion on Thursday night.

England international Will Jacks led a magnificent all-round effort for the home side as they wrapped up a 17-run win.

First he anchored his team’s innings with his second career T20 century, scoring 101 off 42 balls as he guided the hosts to 204/9. Jacks then took 2/18 with the ball, spearheading the Capitals bowling attack as the visitors were restricted to 187/7.

Climbing the standings

With their first victory of the competition (after being handed two defeats) the Pretoria outfit climbed off the bottom rung of the SA20 ladder, leapfrogging Joburg Super Kings into fifth position.

“If you’re zero from three you’re under pressure quite quickly, so it was a massive win for us tonight,” said Ingram, who contributed a useful 43 runs to his team’s total.

“There are certainly areas to improve on, and I think the group has been quite honest about that, but it’s great to get that first win.”

Despite being handed their first defeat of the campaign, the Super Giants remained in second place in the standings behind high-flying Paarl Royals, 

With six matches remaining in the opening round, seam bowler Junior Dala said they were not gutted by the loss, though he admitted they would need to bounce back in order to stay in the hunt.

“If we can take anything from today’s game with the batting and the bowling, with the bat we again showed fight towards the end, and with the ball we showed fight as well,” said Dala, who took 2/32 for the visitors.

“It was just little areas, up front in the powerplay, where the game was probably won and lost in both disciplines, so the cricket we played was hopefully still evidence of how we were going about our business.”

Both teams are back in action on Saturday. The Super Giants host defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape in Durban (starting at 1.30pm) and the Capitals will face the Super Kings in a Gauteng derby at the Wanderers (5.30pm).