Here's how the SA20 2024 has been for our team at the halfway stage: five matches, three losses, two wins. What's missing is consistency, but Head Coach, Robin Peterson, knows a thing or two about starting slow and winning the crown. Remember the MLC? Here he is, in the post-match press conference, and we bring you excerpts of his chat.. 

Thoughts on the way the match went

It was a disappointing loss. It was just one of those games. A lot of our games were closer where we could have gotten over the line, but they played well in their home conditions. They have a team that’s suited to play here. At the halfway stage, we didn’t feel we were out of it. Rassie was caught down leg, Brevis isn’t having the tournament you’d have liked. I thought Bjorn bowled well, and when he picked two quick wickets, we were up against it. Just take it on the chin and move on. 

On the team combination

Polly likes to switch things around with the ball, and isn’t predictable. Thushara was a good selection given how he performed. We needed to see what he was about for the backend of this competition. It was great to see under pressure, the middle order getting a chance and now we know which direction to go. Even though the scoreline was hard to take, this was a positive. Our openers not getting runs, and to still challenge, is an important thing to learn. 

On Dewald Brevis’ form

Dewald Brevis is a quality player. In America, we won the tournament on the back of his batting. He is capable of winning franchise tournaments. He is just a couple of boundaries away from feeling good for himself. He is a quality player, he is a match winner and we believe in him. 

Whether the team misread the pitch at the toss

This is probably one of the better pitches we’ve played on at Paarl. Given our lower order batters hit sixes means that the ball was coming on nicely. Bjorn bowled fantastically well. Sometimes you just have to doff your cap to the opposition. They played well, we didn’t get momentum. And it’s not because we didn’t read the pitch well. The pitch stayed the same throughout. It spun a little bit, but all in all, the bounce and pace was truer than a traditional Paarl surface. 

On the path ahead for the team

It is important to bounce back quickly. You want to get back-to-back wins after a loss in a tournament such as this. We haven’t been able to get that back to back win yet. We have had narrow margins against Sunrisers and Durban where the weather intervened. But that is cricket and you need to stay positive. Once you get a win or two, you can go on a run. We’ll definitely reflect and see where we can go forward from here. 

Thoughts on the team changes for the next game

Still trying to process what happened today. Once that is done, we can think about Newlands. We have a formula that works pretty well at Newlands. We know what the template looks like. It is vastly different to playing here than it is to play in Cape Town. 

On how he sees MI Cape Town on the points table at the moment 

Still some cricket to be played. It is all about momentum in these T20 tournaments. Traditionally you don’t try and get it too early. We’ll try to get a W or two of them. We saw last year that Sunrisers won four games in the league and then won the final. All the teams can beat anybody on their day here in this league. We just need to stay positive. Not get too high when we win, not to get too low when we lose. Just be level headed in our decision making.