From the bottom of the points table in the last two seasons, MI Cape Town (MICT) are guaranteed a place in the SA20 top two and have doubled their opportunity to play in the final. Their 10-wicket win over Sunrisers Eastern Cape (SEC) included a bonus point which confirmed their participation in next week's first Qualifier against Paarl Royals (PR) in Gqeberha.
The result also leaves two-time defending champions SEC in a precarious position. They must win their final group stage against PR on Saturday and hope that either of Joburg Super Kings (JSK) or Pretoria Capitals (PC) lose one of their next two games to have any hopes of finishing in the top four. Even then, the highest they can finish is third with PR and MICT assured of the places in the top two.
For MICT, the turnaround has been remarkable and almost every one of their players has put it down to what Rassie van der Dussen called a "different vibe," in the squad that was created out of a need to do better. "When you do so badly you learn what not to do," van der Dussen said after MICT lost to PR on January 15.
"We really took those lessons of the first two years to heart in terms of our communication, our leadership. It's always tough for an overseas captain coming in but we made a conscious decision - myself, Colin (Ingram), KG (Rabada), Dane Piedt and some of the senior players to say, we're going to to assist this guy as much as we can and help him out on the field. Before we started the first match, it was a really clear plan of ours to get the communication better, to help Rash out and just be a lot better in actually all aspects than we were in the last few years."
But it wasn't just that the only foreign captain in the SA20 needed the locals to show him the ropes, it's that they needed everyone else to pull together. "We just needed to create that winning habit," Ryan Rickelton said a few days later, after his 89 helped MICT beat JSK at Newlands. "The team's tracking well, the guys are clicking really, really nicely. I don't know what it looks like from the outside, but from the inside it feels different this year, and there's a good thing brewing."
In Rickelton and van der Dussen, MICT have always had an opener among the top 10 run-scorers in the competition, and this season, they're both there. Although Rickelton has not been available for every game, MICT still have the second most successful opening pair of the tournament (after PR) with 554 runs including four half-century stands and a strike-rate of 143.52. They also have the best average - 46.16 - and the most number of sixes: 27. A tournament where conditions have been described as "quite tough," as SEC batter and Cape Town local David Bedingham put it, has put a bigger emphasis on teams getting off to a solid and strong start and MICT have had that.
They've also been able to back that up with an attack that has not often let the opposition get away. Partly that is due to having all their bowlers fit. Apart from losing Ben Stokes before the tournament, MICT's two senior seamers, Kagiso Rabada and Trent Boult, have been fully available. No other team in the competition can say the same with Paarl monitoring Lungi Ngidi's comeback, JSK losing almost all their frontline bowlers and most recently David Wiese to a shoulder injury, Pretoria Capitals without Anrich Nortje and Daryn Dupavillon and SEC and Durban's Super Giants without a headline seamer. Despite surfaces that have played slower than usual, that has already given MICT an edge.
And then, there is the impact of their spinners. Rashid, known for his consistency and skill globally, has been the spearhead and is MICT's highest wicket-taker this season. His seven wickets at 26.00 put him joint seventh on the overall list which may not sound like much but Corbin Bosch, George Linde and Kagiso Rabada and Trent Boult are right behind him with six wickets each and Linde's impact has been significant.
According to ESPNcricinfo's ball-by-ball data, in the middle overs (6-15) of this season's competition, MICT have taken15 wickets, which is the same as last season, but with a significantly improved average (17.53 this season, compared with 25.00 last year) and economy rate. This season, they have conceded 6.26 in that period; last season it was 8.15. In general, Rashid and Linde have been responsible for a lot of that with Bosch also a contributor in what is a good illustration of the way Rashid has planned his tactics and how to maximise use of his resources. "He's been fantastic. He's got a lot of ideas and he's been very calm and he's trusted me to do the things that I want to do, let alone all the other players. He's been really motivating," Bosch said.
Even the opposition can see that, especially one that had been as soundly beaten as SEC. "It just looks like MICT have a lot of confidence and you can see that with their batting, their bowling and their fielding," Bedingham said.
One of the highlights of MICT's dominant win over SEC was their catching. Dewald Brevis initially over-ran and then took a one-handed stunner to dismiss Tom Abell at deep backward square and Corbin Bosch managed an instinctive return catch in his followthrough to dismiss Marco Jansen. He could barely believe it when he saw either.
"When I saw the ball go out to Dewald and he was charging in, I was thinking, 'please don't go over your head, please don't go over your head.' And then he took an absolute screamer. If there was someone to do it, it's probably him," Bosch said. "And my caught and bowled, I don't think I saw it for very long. I played a bit of hockey at school and I was a keeper, so I'm going to say a testament to that. It's one of those that they either stick or they don't."
In some ways, that's true for many things in these T20 franchise leagues, where teams are put together on paper long before they have the opportunity to meet each other and barely ever have the time to train together. They either work or they don't. Despite having some of the biggest names in the competition in three seasons - think Jofra Archer and Kieron Pollard in addition to the ones already mentioned - it has not really worked for MICT until now.
That may just be the franchise's way. They also missed the first two years of IPL playoffs, but topped the table in season 3. They have gone on to win the title five times, equal with CSK, and more than anyone else. If there's something for their Cape Town affiliate to aspire to, it may be that.
Stats input from Namooh Shah