OPENING HALF OF BETWAY SA20 SEASON 4 CONTINUES TO SHOW GROWTH

It has been an exhilarating two weeks of South Africa’s premier T20 franchise League, highlighted by world-class cricket, incredible crowds across the six stadiums and a special sprinkle of the summer festive cheer.

From a cricket point of view, the first half of the competition has featured extraordinary team and individual performances.

Match 16 at Kingsmead between hosts Durban’s Super Giants and Pretoria Capitals was a special night in the history of Betway SA20.

Capitals opener Shai Hope smashed an unbeaten 118 to surpass Kyle Verreynne’s 113 not out to become the holder of the highest individual score in Betway SA20 history.

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Hope also joined MI Cape Town’s Ryan Rickelton as the two centurions of Season 4. Rickelton, who added a second hundred in Match 20 against Joburg Super Kings, is top of the current run-scoring charts with 317 runs at a strike-rate of 172.28, including 24 sixes.

The excitement was not over yet at Kingsmead with Capitals’ seamer Lungi Ngidi etching his name into the record books when he claimed the League’s first hat-trick. Ngidi’s victims were David Wiese, Sunil Narine and Gerald Coetzee.

Season 4 has also seen Betway SA20 extend its global footprint with a number of players from a large variety of countries making an impact over the course of the first fortnight.

Royals’ bowlers, Ottneil Baartman and Sikandar Raza top the list with 11 wickets each, with Baartman having also passed the 50-wicket milestone in the process to join his former Sunrisers Eastern Cape teammate Marco Jansen as the only members of the exclusive club.

Meanwhile, the 1000-run club now numbers five, with Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen and Faf du Plessis having joined Heinrich Klaasen and Rickelton in it.

A number of 50-wickets and 1000-runs milestones have been achieved so far in Season 4. View all the League's player stats.

Off the field, the fans have brought the festive cheer, with the League recording the greatest number of sold-out matches in the first half of the competition since its inception. At the time of publication, 14 matches of the completed 17 matches were sold out (four more than in Season 3), while there has been a 22% increase in ticket sales across the first 15 matches in Season 3. The Final was again the best-seller, selling out in the least number of days compared to Season 3.

On screen, the action has been just as incredible, with audience viewership on host broadcaster SuperSport and Indian broadcaster JioStar, peaking at impressive numbers.

On SuperSport, Season 4’s opening fixture delivered a larger local linear audience than other major T20 leagues, outperforming the most recent IPL opening fixture by 59% and the BBL by 118%.

In India, JioStar’s linear channel Star Sports recorded the highest viewership for a Betway SA20 opening match, with the clash between MI Cape Town and Durban’s Super Giants witnessing a 23% jump from Season 3.

Streaming platform JioHotstar has also had a 50% increase in live video views.

The online fans have been as equally engaging with video views across all social media platforms up by 116% compared to the same time in Season 3, with the audience growth already at 137%.

The League’s partners have also been a key part of the action, with the fan favourite Betway Catch R2 million already delivering 8 spectacular one-handed catches, while Absa has given away over R1 million to date to lucky fans at each of the stadiums, with Switch also rewarding fans with a cash prize at every match. Fans still have two weeks to guess the number of balls in the Suzuki Swift at stadiums and stand the chance to walk away with a brand-new car at the Final.

With the competition heading into the business end and Playoff matches, the interest and demand for tickets continues to increase. Tickets are available at www.sa20.co.za/matches