Sunrisers Eastern Cape will like the look of the SA20 standings after the league stage, and not only because they finished on top. They will also know what that has meant in past editions of the tournament.

Last year, MI Cape Town were in pole position going into the playoffs - and went on to win the competition. In 2024, Eastern Cape ended up in the top spot - and claimed the trophy. Only in the inaugural SA20 in 2023 did the leading side in the final standings not become the champions - Pretoria Capitals were that team and made it to the decider at Newlands, where Eastern Cape beat them by four runs.

Wednesday's match, qualifier one at Kingsmead, is a repeat of that fixture. The winners will leapfrog the rest of the knockout stage and go directly into the final at Newlands on Sunday. The losers will have another go at getting there, at the Wanderers on Friday, against the winners of the eliminator, between Paarl Royals and Joburg Super Kings in Centurion on Thursday.

Both of the captains in Wednesday's game deployed the m-word in looking ahead to the match.

"It's good to know we've played well throughout the season, but heading into the play-offs you start each game 0/0," Eastern Cape's Tristan Stubbs said. "So it's nice to have momentum going into the play-offs, but it doesn't mean much at all."

His Pretoria counterpart, Keshav Maharaj, was on the same page: "It's been a topsy-turvy sort of season, but we found a bit of momentum when it mattered the most. And then we lost it and picked it up again. We're still in search of playing a clinical game of cricket in all facets of the game, so hopefully that holds us in good stead and we can peak at the right time."

It's true that both teams won their last league games. But, before that Eastern Cape lost two of their four completed matches. Pretoria lost just one of their previous four games. Pretoria lost both of their league matches against Eastern Cape. But that was at St George's Park and in Centurion. Kingsmead presents a different set of conditions, although they will be closer to Gqeberha's than Centurion's.

How Quinton de Kock performs on Wednesday could be the key indicator of the result. He hasn't scored any of the four centuries seen this season, but no-one has topped his four half-centuries. De Kock is the second leading runscorer after Ryan Rickelton - who made two centuries but will be a spectator for the knockout games because he is part of already eliminated calamity Cape Town - and he has featured in the top two partnerships this summer. De Kock shared an undefeated 177 with Jonny Bairstow and 116 with Matthew Breetzke - both in the Eastern Capers' matches against Pretoria.