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HOW SA20 STARS FARED DURING IPL GROUP STAGE

21 May 20245 mins

The group stage of the Indian Premier League (IPL) concluded on Sunday, leaving just a day for the top four teams - and their Betway SA20-signed stars - to reset ahead of the playoffs.

For the first time in the 17-year history of the IPL, those four teams – Kolkata Knight Riders, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru - are completely different from the previous year’s playoffs qualifiers.

From an SA20 perspective, 11 of the League’s players should be on show during the playoffs. However, with England’s T20 World Cup squad having already gone into camp, only the South African contingent remain with their teams.

At Rajasthan Royals that is Nandre Burger, Donovan Ferreira and Keshav Maharaj; Royal Challengers Bengaluru are captained by Faf du Plessis while Heinrich Klaasen, Aiden Markram and Marco Jansen are still in the running for the title with Sunrisers Hyderabad.

While all of them have featured for their teams during the season to date, Du Plessis has arguably been the standout performer. Much like his Joburg Super Kings team, Royal Challengers Bengaluru had an indifferent start to the season and languished in last place after eight matches. Somehow, the 39-year-old again lead his team to the playoffs – and along the way Du Plessis scored 421 runs with a Player of the Match innings of 54 against Chennai Super Kings in their last group match securing fourth place for RCB (at CSK’s expense).

Heinrich Klaasen also had his moments for Sunrisers, with three 50s and tidy work behind the stumps, while Burger, Ferreira and Maharaj all made their IPL debuts during the group stage. Markram started the season well-enough but didn’t convert the starts he made into big scores while Jansen only featured in three matches.

BEST BATTING PERFORMANCE

There were four hundreds scored during the group stage by SA20-signed players, namely two from Jos Buttler and solitary efforts from Will Jacks and Marcus Stoinis.

Both of Buttler’s knocks saw him carry his bat to wins for Royals against fellow playoffs qualifiers (100* vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru and 107* vs Kolkata Knight Riders) while Jacks matched the 41-ball hundred he got for Pretoria Capitals earlier in the year by doing the same for RCB against Gujarat Titans. Remarkably, Jacks was on 17 off 17 balls before bludgeoning his way to 100* including 10 sixes.

That all said, Stoinis unbeaten 124 for Lucknow Super Giants against Chennai Super Kings not only eclipsed the Englishmen’s efforts but was also the highest individual score of the group stage – and a IPL record score in a chase. The Australian walked to the crease four balls into LSG’s chase of 211 and promptly hammered 13 fours and six sixes in his 63-ball innings.

BEST BOWLING PERFORMANCE

The going was a bit tougher with the ball for SA20-signed players, with the only four-for being claimed by Gerald Coetzee in Mumbai Indians colours.

The 23-year-old was making his IPL bow this year off the back of a three-month spell on the sidelines through injury and would've been excused a period of rustiness. Nonetheless, in his fourth match against Delhi Capitals he showed that he's lost none of the pace and fieriness which prompted the bidding war for his services. His 4-34 ripped the heart out of the Capitals middle- to lower-order to leave them 29 runs short in a gettable total of 235 at the Wankhede Stadium.