The inaugural edition of South Africa’s brand new SA20 league is in the history books. Playing under the captaincy of Aiden Markram, the Sunrisers Eastern Cape lifted the trophy by pulling off a successful run-chase in the final against the Pretoria Capitals. It was an eventful competition and refreshing to see the stands packed in South African stadiums.
MI Cape Town, Joburg Super Kings, Pretoria Capitals, Sunrisers Eastern Cape, Paarl Royals and Durban’s Super Giants participated in this tournament. In a way, this tournament was quite similar to the one that happened in IPL 2009 on South African soil. Here are the five similarities between IPL 2009 and SA 2022-23:
1. Team having Hyderabad connection won the tournament
One of the biggest similarities between the two tournaments was that a team having a connection with Indian city Hyderabad won the tournament. Sunrisers Eastern Cape is the sister franchise of IPL’s Sunrisers Hyderabad, while Deccan Chargers Hyderabad won IPL 2009.
2. South Africa hosted IPL 2009 and SA20
South Africa played host to both the seasons. In 2009, because of elections in India, the BCCI had to shift the tournament to South Africa. Naturally, SA20 happened in South Africa because the tournament is their own league.
3. Mumbai Indians team did not finish in Top 4
Mumbai Indians and MI Cape Town had strong squads in both the tournaments. However, they failed to advance to the semifinals of the competition. Another similarity is that MI teams won the first match of both the competitions.
4. Positions of Super Kings and Delhi connected team
Delhi Daredevils finished number 1 in the points table. Similarly, Pretoria Capitals topped the standings. In IPL, Chennai Super Kings attained the second spot in the 2009 standings, whereas in South Africa’s league Joburg Super Kings bagged the second spot.
5. Member of winning team took highest wickets
Deccan Chargers’ RP Singh was the highest wicket-taker in IPL 2009, while in South Africa’s league the player who took the most wickets was Sunrisers Eastern Cape’s spin bowler Roelof van der Merwe.
