MSL 2019: Why Cape Town Blitz finished below Tshwane Spartans and Durban Heat despite winning more matches?

The points table of the Mzansi Super League 2019 makes for interesting viewing as the defending champions finished bottom without winning any match. The Jozi Stars lost each of their first seven matches in the tournament. Their last three matches ended without a result due to which they earned 6 points. The more bizarre part of the tournament’s points table is Cape Town Blitz finishing 5th despite winning four matches.

The likes of Tshwane Spartans and Durban Heat finished 3rd and 4th respectively by winning only three matches. Spartans, who made it to the Elimination Final by ending on 3rd position, have qualified for the finals by defeating the Nelson Mandela Bay Giants. They will face off the Paarl Rocks in the final on Monday night at the Paarl’s Boland Park. Finishing on the top of the table by virtue of NRR helped Paarl to host the final.

Points table explanation:

Though both Spartans and Heat had fewer wins than the Cape Town Blitz, both have got more points. Both the teams earned as many as 10 points through five washed out matches. The Blitz had only one abandoned game and five defeats in the 10 matches whereas Tshwane and Durban suffered only three losses. The Spartans won a match by bonus point which helped them to finish with 23 points, one more than the Durban Heat.

The Cape Town Blitz ended up with only 19 points as they also had one bonus point win of the four victories. The team with higher number of wins will finish higher only if the multiple teams are levelled on points. Since the Blitz were well behind on the number of points, they had to finish behind Spartans and Heat despite winning a game more.

It won’t be right to assume Cape Town as the unluckier side who got to play the underperforming team Jozi Stars twice in the league. The Spartans defeated the Stars once while their 2nd game against them was abandoned. The Durban Heat are easily the most unfortunate side in the tournament as their last two matches were scheduled against Jozi Stars. Both the games getting abandoned ensured the Durban franchise fell one point short of playing the Elimination Final.

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