SA20 Season 2 Rules & Playing Conditions: Are There Any Changes In 2024 Edition From Season 1?

The inaugural edition of the SA20, Cricket South Africa's premier T20 League, saw the introduction of some unique rules like captains being allowed to pick playing 11 after toss and a team earning up to 5 points in a match.

The unique set of rules from last season remain with the only change being in the playoff format. The league stage will continue to see each team play the remaining five teams twice to book four spots in the playoff, which will now switch to the IPL format instead of the traditional semi-finals.

How does the SA20 season 2 playoff format work?

In the SA20 playoff, the top two teams on the points table after the league stage will meet in the first qualifier, with the winner directly earning a spot in the final, while it's not the end of road for the loser of Qualifier 1.

The losing team from the first qualifier will enter the second qualifier, where they will face the winner of the Eliminator, which will be contested by the third and fourth placed teams. The winner from Qualifier 2 will face the winner from Qualifier 1 in the SA20 final.

In total 34 matches will be staged this season across six venues with Cape Town and Johannesburg already announced as the playoff venues. Newlands in Cape Town will host the Final and Qualifier 1, while Wanderers in Johannesburg will stage the Eliminator and Qualifier 2 next month.

How will play-off teams be decided in case teams are tied on same points?

In the event of teams finishing on equal points after the round robin phase, the right to progress through to the final and those to play in the play-off will be determined as follows:

• The team with the most number of wins;
• If still equal, the team with the highest number of bonus points;
• If still equal, the team with the highest net run rate;
• If still equal, the team with the most number of wins over the other team(s) who are equal on points and have the same number of wins;
• If still equal, the team with the highest runs to wickets ratio throughout the tournament;
• If still equal, the team with the highest wickets to runs ratio throughout the tournament.

While the playoff format is the only change from last season, the tournament has some unique set of rules that altered some traditional or still in practice rules of the game, including the weight of points for a win.

The additions or changes to the games rules were included to improve the quality of the product while preserving the sanctity of the game. Here is a look at some of those rules and click here for all the playing conditions of SA20.

Captains Can Pick Playing 11 After Toss

First up in the unique set of rules, in a first a captain can pick his playing 11 for the match after the toss in SA20. In an innovative move to level the playing field in SA20, each captain can nominate 13 players to take the field before the toss.

Each team can handover 4 copies of Match Team sheets to the SA20 Operations Manager on match duty 15 minutes prior to the toss and the person in charge will administer it from thereon.

After the toss, each captain can select their final starting XI and the remainder of the players (the remaining two players from the list provided) will automatically become substitute players.

SA20 Points System and Bonus Point

In SA20, teams winning will be awarded four points instead of the 2 points like other T20 Leagues - IPL or the BBL to name a few, and a bonus-point win will give the winning team an additional point, meaning the team will be awarded five points.

How can team earn a bonus point in SA20?

The bonus point will be awarded to a team that achieves a run rate of 1.25 times more than that of the opposition. In case of a no result, both teams will be awarded two points instead of the one point in other leagues, while the losing team will not receive any points. In a match declared as a No Result, run rate is not applicable.

In addition to the playing 11 choice and points system, the following rules were also adjusted ahead of the inaugural edition of CSA's T20 League - the SA20:

• The pace of play will be protected without suspensions, meaning captains will be charged with in-game penalties for slow over-rates through fielding restrictions.
• There has been an amendment to the free-hit rule, a bowled dismissal can't lead to byes if the ball ricochets off the stumps. It will be counted as a dead ball and no runs will be added.
• Positive and attacking fielding will be encouraged. No runs can be taken off overthrows when an intentional attempt to run out the batter if a direct hit deflects off the stumps.
• The Other Playing Conditions, more traditional or in practice will also continue to be used in the second season after following the same during the inaugural edition in 2023:
• There will be two strategic time-outs of 2 minutes 30 seconds in duration in each innings. The time-outs are to allow the teams to re-group tactically.
• Six Powerplay overs will be implemented where only two fielders will be allowed outside the 30-yard circle.