Rickelton is rocking, but Faf’s floundering after first week of SA20 action

How exciting it has been to see a bunch of fringe national players and several unknowns shining in the first week of the second edition of the SA20 cricket competition.

While the likes of seasoned campaigners Faf du Plessis (23 runs in three matches), Quinton de Kock (55 runs in four matches) and Theunis de Bruyn (11 runs in three matches) have found the going hard this season, a bunch of promising players, spoken of as the future men of the Proteas in T20 cricket, have also struggled.

Dewald Brevis, while going out on two occasions to stunning catches, has managed just 18 runs in three matches and Donovan Ferreira has scored only 23 runs in three matches.

Top performers

The surprise performers have been in-and-out-of-the-Proteas-team Ryan Rickelton, who has looked a world class player for MI Cape Town, scoring 243 runs in three matches at an average of 81.

And a little behind in the runs scorers list is Rassie van der Dussen, who’s also been in and out of the national team of late, with 169 runs, and he’s followed by Heinrich Klaasen (163 runs), who’s just retired from Test cricket, but, thank goodness, is still be available for the Proteas in the white-ball game.

Rising stars Jordan Hermann (109 runs) and Mitchell van Buuren (108) as well as Tristan Stubbs and Connor Esterhuizen have also shown glimpses of bright futures.

Of course, there is a long way to go in the competition and plenty of time for the struggling batters to find their range.

In the bowling, Lungi Ngidi (eight wickets in three matches) has looked excellent with his variations, while Lizaad Williams (six wickets in three games) has also shown he is a handful when he gets it right.

All-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo, who’s lost his place in the Proteas set-up in recent times, has also enjoyed good form recently and has performed superbly for the Paarl Royals so far.

With a T20 World Cup later this year, there’s everything to play for in the remainder of the competition for several players … and hopefully the selectors are watching closely.