Though it's just in its inaugural year and only a few matches have been played, Pretoria Capitals' all-rounder Jimmy Neesham says the SA20, South Africa's franchise-based domestic T20 tournament, feels just like the Indian Premier League (IPL) in terms of how the local players have grabbed the opportunity to show their capabilities.
Neesham spoke on how the talent in South Africa has come through in the inaugural season of the SA20. "Oh, for sure. It almost feels like the IPL a little bit.
The four overseas players and every team are obviously really high quality and I've been really impressed by the quality of the local South African players as well, a few guys that we haven't seen in International cricket before, but certainly a whole lot of talent floating around South Africa and potentially a chance to be the launching pad for those talents to go further around the world as well," Neesham was quoted as saying in a release by SA20.
Pretoria Capitals sit at the top of the SA20 table after winning five out of their seven games. Their recent form has been a little less impressive with two losses in their last five games.
With the next challenge being against MI Cape Town, before the mid-tournament break, Pretoria Capitals will be looking to end the first half of the campaign on a strong note.
In an exclusive interaction with the SA20, Pretoria Capitals all-rounder Jimmy Neesham spoke about how the SA20 has fared so far, how the Capitals deal with the pressure of each game and how the talent in South Africa has really shone through in the inaugural season of the SA20.
Speaking exclusively with SA20, Neesham gave his take on how the SA20 has fared so far, he said "Yeah it's been great. It's a fantastic tournament obviously, the vibe has been amazing because of the whole thing, some pretty incredible crowds and some pretty incredible atmosphere.
So, it's been really enjoyable so far. We're only about halfway through so hopefully it keeps delivering over the next couple of weeks." Neesham also spoke on how the Pretoria Capitals deal with the pressure of games and how they cope with each result.
He said, "Just about being as level-headed as we can I think you know, we know what the quality of teams in this tournament you're not going to go out and blow teams off the park and win every game. "So, we weren't really too disappointed with the performance yesterday.
It's like a couple of really good innings from a couple of really high-quality players and Jos Buttler and David Miller and you know that happens every now and then and in instalments but the quality of players are higher, so we haven't changed a whole lot going into this game. Just go again and be a little bit better than we were yesterday," he added.