Joburg Super Kings had two bites at the cherry, but they have to dust themselves off for what has turned out to be their most important game of the season.
JSK suffered a shock loss to Pretoria Capitals on Saturday at the Wanderers when a victory would have sealed automatic progression to the Betway SA20 playoffs.
The Super Kings started the game in dramatic fashion, cleaning up the Capitals’ top-order to reduce the visitors to 7/5 before Dewald Brevis and Sherfane Rutherford combined to rescue the visitors with a match-winning 103-run sixth-wicket stand.
Stephen Fleming’s team now have to lift themselves again for a virtual quarter-final against Paarl Royals at Boland Park on Monday if they are to have any more interest in the competition.
“We’ve still got a shot so I think we’ve had a pretty bad week to be fair, a little bit of rain around but now we’ve still got a shot at making the semi-finals so that there’s the positive aspect to it so my role will be a little bit of reflection.
“There’s a bit of emotion in the rooms, naturally losing a game like that, but very quickly we’ll get on the plane and it’ll be about the opportunity that presents.
“The worst thing would be if this was the last game we played and then we will disperse with a horrible feeling so at least we’ve got an opportunity to give it a crack.”
Fleming bemoaned the injuries to key batters such as Rilee Rossouw and Faf du Plessis during the campaign, and now also stand-in captain Donovan Ferreira who was forced to retire hurt against the Capitals. But the experienced New Zealander believes it’s a great opportunity for an unheralded player to seize the day.
“We might not be at full strength but someone’s got to be a hero and there’s someone in that room, might be a youngster, might be a senior player that will have the opportunity to do that so we’ll get excited about that,” Fleming said.
“But I won’t rush that, it’ll be a long plane trip down to Cape Town and then probably a little meeting tomorrow night but we’ve been pretty consistent throughout with our messaging and what we’re trying to do, it’ll just be a case of delivering on the day.”
The Royals have already qualified for the playoffs, but will be eager to bounce back from a humbling defeat to Durban’s Super Giants at Kingsmead last Saturday. David Miller’s team also still have plenty on the line as a victory would put them in contention to feature in the Qualifier 1 at Kingsmead on Wednesday.
