Kyle Verreynne appeals for a wicket during the Pretoria Capitals' match against Joburg Super Kings earlier this week. Picture: Ron Gaunt/Gallo Images
Recently appointed captain Kyle Verreynne hopes the Pretoria Capitals can carry some momentum into their crunch SA20 clash against MI Cape Town in Centurion on Friday (5.30pm start).
Having struggled to stay afloat in the table, the Capitals picked up only their second win in eight games (two of their matches have been rained out) when they thumped the Joburg Super Kings by six wickets at SuperSport Park on Tuesday, keeping them in the hunt.
Heading into their penultimate fixture of the league stage on Friday, the skipper hoped they would be buoyed by their latest performance.
While MI Cape Town have already qualified for the playoffs (along with log leaders the Paarl Royals), the fifth-placed Capitals are still locked in a battle with defending champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape and the Super Kings for the last two spots in the knockout stages.
“It’s very pleasing that we got this win. Something we spoke about quite a bit in the camp was just getting a bit of momentum going into this back stretch now,” said Verreynne, who replaced Rilee Rossouw as captain ahead of the Super Kings clash, with Rossouw being unavailable for the rest of the SA20 campaign for personal reasons.
“If things go our way, hopefully we’ve got five games left in this tournament, so it’s important that we carry a bit of momentum going forward.
“Getting the win was obviously imperative, but I think the way we played was also really important.”
While the Pretoria side’s top three batters were unable to make significant contributions against the Super Kings, Verreynne said they were satisfied with the way they had played thus far in the tournament.
“We’re quite comfortable with how things are going on the batting front. I think if you look at the tournament as a whole the only real bomb out we had was the game against Sunrisers. Other than that I think we didn’t quite get over the line… but as a whole, as a batting unit, we’re pretty comfortable.
“It’s just been a tournament where those smaller margins haven’t quite gone our way.”
After Friday’s match, Pretoria Capitals and MI Cape Town will play their last games of the opening round when they face each other in the return clash at Newlands on Sunday.
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