Happy New Year! We’re back! I know it’s been a while, I’ve been quiet on here …. but we are just about 5 days away from the 1 year anniversary of this blog and what better time to breathe some life back into it. 🎉
Going forward I’m going to make these shorter in the spirit of producing more …kind of like Temba Bavuma in his white ball innings at the moment 😬
The big topic today is the SA 20 —here are the topics, scroll down to those you are interested in
- Sponsorship of SA20
- Flash Details and Packs
- MI Cape Town / Paarl Royals Team insight
SA20 Sponsorship
- FanCraze is the official digital collectibles partner for the SA20 this year (see here). I think we can expect to see FanCraze branding around the grounds through the SA20 much like we did for the ICC T20 World Cup
- That’s not all — look at these unreal Joburg Super Kings Jerseys. The Green highlights might put this above the Chennai SKs jersey in my eyes. Not to mention FC on the front 💪
- FanCraze also nabbed a spot on the back of the Paarl Royals Jersey.
SA20 Flash
It’s fair to say I’mnot the resident flash Guru, so I’ll not focus too much on strategy here. However, in terms of what we can expect for Flash:
Daily Flash
- Crucially, official SA20 Player Cards are being introduced for SA20 — in line with FCs sponsorship of the event
- Indications are Player Cards will be used in day-to day Flash (there is a weekly league coming too for your regular moments)
- Packs (see below) will be available on a Team by Team basis. Common or Rare packs are available. Each pack with 3 players. The MP is up and running for these cards also
- There will be Common Only Flash Events, and Pro-Rare Flash Events. There are 33 matches in total across the SA20 — FC plan to have 30–33 Common Flash Events, and 25–30 Pro/Rare Flash events.
- MI Cape Town and Paarl Royal Packs are live NOW — you can pick up a pack while supplies last. Go to the Pack page, or browse the marketplace for your fave players.
- Prizes for Daily Flash will include regular Cash / FC Cash prizes and Player cards as rewards (this will be an interesting dynamic)
- Flash for the first Game is starting ASAP — so go get involved if you have your player cards
Weekly Flash League
- Understandably there were questions around “What about my current ICC Cricto moments in SA20”
- There will be a weekly league, using ICC Critcos — this will be a “Set and Forget” league, so likely no swap feature through the course of the week
- There was discussion around the strength of MELT moments in this case. As a reminder, MELT moments include 2 players, and in Flash, the highest scoring player’s dynamic points are leveraged in your score. This offers the opportunity for 1 moment to cover 2 players in your league.
- There are 2 moments of this kind that have BOTH players in the SA20
- Folks with a busty ICC Crictos collection should hopefully fair well in this League — and the set and forget feature reduces the maintenance of your squad (missing the constant opportunities for swapping always torpedoed me in past leagues)
SA20 Teams and Player Cards
There are 6 Teams in SA20 — I will be updating this blog as and when the Player Cards for SuperGiants, SuperKings, Capitals and Sunrisers are released.
For the moment we have insight into the cards for MI Cape Town and Paarl Royals ahead of the clash today:
MI Cape Town
Captain — Rashid Khan
Coaching Staff — Simon Katich (head coach), Hashim Amla, James Pamment
Notes:
- A very strong side. Three quality players — Livingstone, Rabada and Rassie VDD, do not have cards at this time. TheGoodPlace (a key member of our FC squad on Discord) made a solid point that Rabada and Rassie probably did not make media day for headshots given the Aussie Test tour just wrapped up. Be on the lookout for these coming as rewards, or adding to packs in the coming weeks
- Livingstone, Curran, Archer, Rabada and Rassie will be candidates for the England / South Africa ODI series starting on Jan 27th through Feb 1st. Amazingly, The SA20 takes a break across these dates (International and Franchise cricket finally getting along)...but, don't be surprised if there are some of these key players rested just before / after this date.
- To that note — Jofra Archer hasn't bowled in a long time, well over 10 months due to multiple injuries. The whole cricketing world will have their fingers crossed he goes well.
- Players to watch — Baby AB — Dewald Brevis. Here is a reminder of what he can do:
- Players to Watch — Rashid Khan will captain and play more or less every game bar an injury. Stating the obvious — he’s probably the best T20 bowler there is
- Biggest Question — How will the openers go? With other teams in SA20 having fairly clear cut answers to the opening spot, MI Cape Town have 2 more relatively unknown (on the international stage) openers. Ryan Rickelton has limited international experience, and will take the reins with Wes Marshall who will hope to earn some of the spotlight and conversation for a call up given SA’s horrible series in Australia.
Paarl Royals
Captain — David Miller
Coaching Staff — JP Duminy
Notes:
- As before — Ngidi, does not have a card at this time due to the Aussie series wrapping up not long ago. Obed McCoy has been ruled out via injury also — so would not expect him to have a card for that reason.
- Stacked with international T20 specialists like Shamsi, Morgan, Buttler Miller — the side looks strong in individual ability
- Players to watch — Jason Roy. Out of form for quite a while now, if the Royals are to succeed Buttler and Miller will need some significant help. Roy has the ability to win games, I'll be waiting to see what kind of touch Roy is in now.
- Players to Watch — Tabraiz Shamsi will be the go-to man as soon as the powerplay is over. Akin to the role that their sister team Raj. Royal’s place Yuzi Chahal in, his bag of tricks will be fun to watch, as will his shoe-phone celebration
- Common Only Card Edge— Ramon Simmonds — May have to wait to get into the startig XI, but bowled tremendously well for the Barbados Royals in the CPL. Only has a Common card at this time.
Til next time — CraigSnax
