The knockouts are here. The playoffs may still be a week away, but for MI Cape Town, every game now is a virtual knockout, every game is a virtual eliminator. There’s no point starting a tournament well and losing steam midway. It’s always about how you finish. We have five games. But for that, we simply have to win on Wednesday (February 1). 

We are also in a situation where we need a bit of help from the other sides, Joburg Super Kings and Pretoria Capitals in particular, and JSK, on Tuesday (January 31), losing to the Sunrisers Eastern Cape, was one such sign of the stars aligning for us. It’s simple now, win, and hopefully win with a bonus point, and let everything else just take care of itself. 

The Capitals are up, in back-to-back encounters. They are in the same boat as us, just as desperate to turn the campaign around. While we might not have seen a W against our name in the last four games, there’ve been plenty of positives. They’re clicking, one at a time. It’s just a matter of exploding together. And what better occasion than to do it on the batting paradise that is the SuperSport Park. 

What: Pretoria Capitals

When: February 1, 2024 | 5:30pm local, 9:00pm IST

Where: SuperSport Park, Centurion

What to expect: Two teams battling for survival. Remember, in the 2023 edition of the SA20, the eventual champions, Sunrisers Eastern Cape, scraped through to the play-offs on the back of winning just four league games. There’s no reason why we cannot do it in 2024. It’s all about that word the MI #OneFamily is known for: Believe..