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BETWAY SA20'S SAFEST HANDS BELONGS TO...
When it comes to T20 cricket, having reliable outfielders is a non-negotiable. Whether it’s being nimble enough to field in the inner ring or quick enough on their feet – and in the mind – to patrol the boundary’s edge… they have to master at least one, if not both.
Across the two seasons of Betway SA20 they don’t come more trustworthy than Pretoria Capitals’ Will Jacks and Aiden Markram, Sunrisers Eastern Cape’s captain. The pair – ostensibly batters who have a knack for taking wickets with their off-spinners – have both taken 14 catches, the joint-most in the League’s burgeoning history.
Jacks has the more impressive ‘strike rate’ as his record number of catches have only come in 17 matches, whereas Markram has taken 23 matches [making him one of the League’s ‘Ever-presents’].
ALSO READ: Meet SA20's 'Ever-presents'
Both have equally strong claims on League’s best catch, however. During Season 1, in the Highveld Derby at Wanderers, Gerald Coetzee smacked Eathan Bosch to leg for what looked like a low-flying six. That was until Jacks raced around the boundary and calmly snatched a one-handed effort which had the commentators and Joburg Super Kings head coach Stephen Fleming awestruck.
Markram’s came in the Season 2 playoffs, when Durban’s Super Giants’ Jon-Jon Smuts thought he’d got away with a lofted ‘slap-shot’ … only for a ‘Sauce’ to leap into the air, and hang onto an improbable catch in a backward-cupped hand on his outstretched right arm. Smuts could barely believe it, much like the stunned neutral Newlands crowd.
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As it happens, the leading pair are also followed by a dynamic duo, in Heinrich Klaasen (Durban’s Super Giants) and Marco Jansen (Sunrisers Eastern Cape). All told, Klaasen actually has 15 SA20 catches to his name, but two came in Season 1 while standing in for Quinton de Kock behind the stumps. So ‘Klaasie’ remains in joint-second on 13 with Jansen who, as can be imagined, is a difficult man to hit over the top of.
Fifth place on the catchers all-time list belongs to Jimmy Neesham. The Pretoria Capitals all-rounder built up a reputation during the inaugural season for taking classic catches off his own bowling on the way to claiming a season-high 10 overall. An indifferent season for the Season 1 runners-up, and an season-shortening injury meant Neesham only managed two more in the Capitals second campaign.
Sixth place, meanwhile, is shared by David Miller (Paarl Royals) and Wiaan Mulder (Durban’s Super Giants) who have both claimed 11 catches to date in SA20. One behind them, in eighth place, is Faf du Plessis, the Joburg Super Kings captain who also held onto a ‘worldie’ to rival Jacks and Markram during Season 2.
Completing the top end of the most catches in SA20 history are four men with nine catches; Dewald Brevis (MI Cape Town), Bjorn Fortuin (Paarl Royals), Keshav Maharaj (Durban’s Super Giants) and Patrick Kruger, who had a dream maiden season in the League with back-to-back champions, Sunrisers Eastern Cape.
MOST CATCHES IN BETWAY SA20 HISTORY
1. Will Jacks (Pretoria Capitals) - 14 catches
= Aiden Markram (Sunrisers Eastern Cape) - 14 catches
3. Marco Jansen (Sunrisers Eastern Cape) - 13 catches
= Heinrich Klaasen (Durban's Super Giants) - 13 catches
5. Jimmy Neesham (Pretoria Capitals) - 12 catches
6. David Miller (Paarl Royals) - 11 catches
= Wiaan Mulder (Durban's Super Giants) - 11 catches
8. Faf du Plessis (Joburg Super Kings) - 10 catches
9 Patrick Kruger (Sunrisers Eastern Cape) - 9 catches
= Dewald Brevis (MI Cape Town) - 9 catches
= Bjorn Fortuin (Paarl Royals) - 9 catches
= Keshav Maharaj (Paarl Royals) - 9 catches
