The 2018 Africa T20 Cup was the fourth and final edition of the Africa T20 Cup, a Twenty20 cricket tournament. It was held in South Africa in September 2018, as a curtain-raiser to the 2018–19 South African domestic season.[1] Provincial side KwaZulu-Natal Inland were the defending champions.[2][3]
Organised by Cricket South Africa, the tournament was played between twenty teams.[4] Sixteen of these teams had participated in previous years – thirteen South African provincial teams, national representative sides of Kenya, Namibia and Zimbabwe[5] – and they were joined by South African teams Limpopo and Mpumalanga along with Nigeria[6] and Uganda.[7] The invitation was initially extended to Ghana, but they declined.[7]
On the opening day of the tournament, Marco Marais scored an unbeaten century for Border against Namibia in Group C.[9] In Group D, Shane Dadswell scored 98 runs from 34 balls for North West, which Cricket South Africa described as "the performance of the day".[10] On the second day, Marais scored his second century, making 106 not out.[11]Wihan Lubbe also scored a century, batting for North West against Limpopo in Group D.[12] In the same match, North West scored 262 runs, the second-highest score in T20 cricket.[12]
Following the conclusion of the group stage of the tournament, Easterns, Gauteng, Border and North West had all progressed to the semi-finals of the competition.[13] Gauteng and North West were drawn together in the first semi-final, with Border and Easterns playing each other in the second semi-final.[14] The matches took place at Buffalo Park in East London.[14]
In the first semi-final, Gauteng beat North West by 27 runs to progress to the final.[15] They were joined by Border, after they beat Easterns by 7 wickets in the second semi-final.[16] Gauteng won the tournament, beating Border by three wickets in the final.[17][18]
For the next season, the tournament was replaced with the returning CSA Provincial T20 Cup, last played in the 2015–16 season, and featuring only the South African domestic provincial teams.[19][20]
