MI Cape Town openers Rassie van der Dussen and Ryan Rickelton shattered the competition record for the best partnership by scoring 200 runs against Joburg Super Kings on Saturday.
Rickelton (98) fell two runs short of 100, with Van der Dussen (104) hitting the first ton of the season, as they got 243/5 at the Wanderers, before bowling out their hosts for 145 to win by 98 runs.
The 27-year-old Rickelton also scored 87 in MI Cape Town’s first match of the tournament against Durban Super Giants last week – a match they lost by 11 lopies.
And after back-to-back standout performances, Van der Dussen reckons the Proteas selectors can no longer ignore Rickelton.
After four Tests and two ODIs – the last in each format being in 2023 – Rickelton has dropped down the national team pecking order, and fellow Protea Van der Dussen verstaan nie hoekom nie.
He says: “I think he’s been hard done by, to be honest, not being in any of the squads versus India.
“He’s had a really good two, three years in all formats.
“And he was sort of in the mix earlier in the year and got left out of all the squads. I know how badly he wants to play international cricket. He’s had a taste of it at Test level, but he’s a brilliant 50-over and T20 player as well.
“Quinny [de Kock] is going to be moving on and he fits into that mould of someone who can replace Quinny, he definitely has the game…
“If he puts the numbers on, you can’t really ignore him.”
In other action on the weekend, Paarl Royals (160/7 – David Miller 41) beat Pretoria Capitals by 27 runs, while Durban Super Giants (225/3 – JJ Smuts 75, Nicholas Pooran 60* and Matthew Breetzke 43) beat Sunrisers Eastern Cape (190/9 – Tom Abell 65 and Tristan Stubbs 55) by 35 runs.
The Royals (210/3 – Miller 75* and Mitchell van Buuren 72*) then klapped the Capitals (200 – Rilee Rossouw 82 and Will Jacks 58) again on Sunday at Centurion.
Today’s match sees the Giants host the Kings at 5.30pm.