Although the Pretoria Capitals earned their first league points in Centurion on Sunday, the lack of a result in their first home game was probably a major setback for their campaign in the current SA20 season.

After their narrow defeat by just two runs against the same team in their first match in Durban last Friday, Rilee Rossouw’s and his teammates would probably have given themselves a good chance of winning their first home match in Centurion.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature did not want to cooperate and the rainy weather that has prevailed in Centurion since early last week had the final say at SuperSport Park on Sunday.

The local team’s campaign began in Durban last Friday in very exciting fashion with a match that was in the balance until the last ball was bowled.

After winning the toss and electing to bat first, the home team made good use of the favourable conditions and posted the highest score so far in this year’s tournament. This score of 209/4 included an unbeaten 60 off 40 balls from New Zealander Kane Williamson.

He was well supported by two local South African players, the Dolphins’ Bryce Parsons (47 off 28 balls) and Matthew Breetzke from the Warriors (33 off 20 balls).

The Pretoria Capitals were therefore tasked with batting at an average of 10.5 runs per over if they wanted to win the match.

Their opening pair of rising young Afghan star batsman, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (89 off 43 balls) and English all-rounder, Will Jacks (64 off 35 balls) set the example for the rest of their teammates. These two men’s opening partnership of 154 runs laid the foundation on which the rest of the batting line-up could build.

Unfortunately, the batsmen who followed were disappointing with only Englishman Liam Livingstone (13 off 11 balls) and former Proteas wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne (10 off 7 balls) able to reach double figures.

Verreynne almost became the hero for the Pretoria Capitals in the final over, sending Naveen-ul-Haq’s third-last delivery to the boundary for four runs, meaning five runs from either or both of the last two balls would have secured victory. But he could only score a single off the fifth ball, leaving 18-year-old former Die Hoërskool Menlopark pupil, Steve Stolk, with the unenviable task of winning the match with a boundary from the last ball.

Stolk tried his best, but could not get his bat to the ball with the last difficult delivery and the single run via a leg bye was not enough to reach the target.

– Unfortunately, Sunday’s rematch between the two teams in Centurion was abandoned due to rain and a wet outfield, meaning that the Pretoria Capitals are in fifth place after two games with only two points on the log.

A victory in their next match against the Sunrisers Eastern Cape, which will be played in Centurion on Tuesday (January 14), is therefore essential to get their campaign back on track.

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