The Africa T20 Cup reaches its climax this weekend when the 2016 champions will be crowned at the Recreation Ground in Oudtshoorn.
After 16 teams started the competition four weeks ago, the list has now been whittled down to the four Pool winners – North West Seeff Dragons, Northern Cape, Zimbabwe and Eastern Province – in the playoffs.
Although all four will be confident of their progress, the Dragons and Eastern Province can be counted as the favourites to reach the final after winning all three of their matches thus far. The men from Potchefstroom swept aside all before them in Pool A when the competition was launched on September 2 in Pietermaritzburg, beating last season’s finalists KwaZulu-Natal Inland, Western Province and Namibia.
But their coach, Monty Jacobs, insists there is no such things as favourites in 20-over cricket. “T20 cricket is unpredictable and we definitely cannot say who the favourites will be,” he said. “We all play in different conditions and in different pools, so it will just boil down to how a team plays on the day.
“I think for us, we’ll play it as it comes. We’ve been keeping ourselves ready with a number of practice matches over the past few weeks, so we’ll be ready.”
Jacobs’s comments were echoed by the other team coaches too, although JP Trigaardt, who heads Northern Cape, was hoping their knowledge of conditions in Oudtshoorn will aid their bid to win the competition.
Pool B, which was topped by the Kimberley-based outfit, was based in the South Western Cape town, and NC claimed two wins from three matches with the other a wash-out to end ahead of defending champions Northerns, Kenya and hosts South Western Districts.
“We’re delighted to be here among the last four teams standing,” Trigaardt said. “And I think we stand a good chance considering we played here and we know the conditions. I don’t think those conditions will change too much.
“But all four teams in the last four are strong. I think it will always be about whoever rocks up on the day. I’m happy to say that we will be the underdogs, we always see ourselves that way and we strive on that.
“We also had massive support when we did play here and that will help us again.”
Eastern Province will be hoping to progress from the other semifinal, although their coach, Piet Botha, admits that facing an unknown Zimbabwe team will be tricky.
While the men from Port Elizabeth beat Gauteng, Boland and KwaZulu-Natal in Pool D to get here, the Zimbabweans reached the last four by virtue of an elimination draw after only two completed matches were possible in their Pool C because of adverse weather conditions.
Stephan Mangongo’s side were randomly selected ahead of Border, Free State and Easterns and Botha says it is hard to know what to expect.
“We don’t know much about the Zimbabwe team because we have never played them before, ever,” he added. “So for us it will be all about maintaining the same intensity from our pool. “We can’t think about things like favouritism or anything. We just need to go out there, focus and get the basics right. The rest will take care of itself.”