And then a bird pooped on Rassie van der Dussen. It happened as he stood in the shade mercifully granted on a mercilessly hot Monday this week by the trees that lend the grass bank along Newlands' eastern boundary its name: The Oaks.

Van der Dussen was greeting the reporters waiting to speak to him when he blurted, "Ooh!" He looked at his right hand, fingers spread wide, then glanced into the branches above to try and spot the offender.

"Well," he said with a shrug, "That's good luck, isn't it?" He found some leaves to clean himself up as best he could without soap and water, and politely declined to shake hands with the rest of the reporters citing the obvious reason.

Would that luck last until Friday, when Mumbai Indians Cape Town began their defence of the SA20 title they won in January against Durban's Super Giants? The answer took a while to arrive.

First Kagiso Rabada wasn't named in Cape Town's XI. That might not have raised the alarm but for the fact that he missed South Africa's last 15 matches - seven T20Is, six ODIs and two Tests in Pakistan and India going back 64 days - with a rib problem.

The start of the T20 World Cup looms in Sri Lanka and India looms in 44 days, and the squads will be named in eight days' time. Rashid Khan told the host broadcaster at the toss that Rabada would also not play in Cape Town's next game, against Durban at Kingsmead on Sunday. That leaves Rabada only one chance to prove his fitness, against Pretoria Capitals at Newlands on Wednesday, before the squads are revealed.

Is that a gamble the selectors, Shukri Conrad and Patrick Moroney, would reckon is worth making? If the player concerned was anyone else the answer would be a hard, loud, "No!" Because we're talking about Rabada it's "Wait...", hopeful of becoming "Yes!"

Then Devon Conway and Kane Williamson shared an opening stand of 96 off 51 that had as much to do with canny stroke selection and wily running between the wickets as it did with big hitting.

Then Rashid Khan, having run for his life towards the long-off boundary and taken an outrageous catch over his shoulder to break the partnership by removing Williamson for 40, lost a chance in the lights, then dropped another off his own bowling, then leaked 44 runs for no reward in his four overs, then spilled still another catch.

Then Aiden Markram put on 32 off 19 with Heinrich Klaasen and 34 off 18 with Evan Jones before he lurched down the pitch to George Linde and was stumped for 35 off 17.

Then the visitors, having been on course for somewhere north of 240 while Conway and Williamson were bossing the bowling, settled on 232 for 5 - the highest score made at Newlands in the three editions and one match yet played in this competition, which left Cape Town needing the highest successful chase in the tournament's history.

Only then did Van der Dussen walk out with Ryan Rickelton to start Durban's reply. And then, having taken two singles off the first five balls he faced, and made room towards leg to hammer Eathan Bosch through the off side, only for the bowler to see him going and adjust accordingly, Van der Dussen spliced a pull into deep mid-wicket's hands.

So much for bird poop luck.

Instead you had to wonder what fell on Rickelton this week.

He took guard having faced five balls for zero runs in his previous two innings; in ODIs in Ranchi and Visakhapatnam on November 30 and December 6. He had gone nine innings without reaching 50, and that bright spot - 71 in the Lahore Test in October - was his only half-century in 20 trips to the crease.

This trip would be different.

Rickelton took two singles off the first four balls bowled to him. Then he slog swept Simon Harmer for consecutive sixes. Then he did something similar to Bosch, this time the ball sailing over midwicket and fine leg. In all 11 sixes flew off Rickelton's bat, along with five fours.

He was 85 when Kwena Maphaka had him caught. But only until the delivery was called no-ball.

Rickelton went to 98 on one knee by muscling Noor Ahmed over the long-off fence. As David Wiese chugged in with the next ball Rickelton would face, Van der Dussen sat in the dugout with his elbows propped up on his knees and his since washed hands gently but balefully patting his cheeks. If only ... Rickelton launched the delivery high into the sky beyond long-on to reach his hundred off 57 balls.

Wiese's next ball skewed off a pulling Rickelton's top edge and went up, up and up. Bosch tore in from midwicket to try and take the catch. The ball thudded to earth untouched.

Cape Town needed 22 off the last over to reel in the record, and they had a chance only because Rickelton was still there. Then he wasn't - Bosch's first effort was wide, and Rickelton hoisted it high towards the long-off fence. But the ball had found more edge than middle. Jones settled under it and took the catch. This time there was no no-ball reprieve.

With Rickelton went all the tension in the match, which Durban won by 15 runs. The sell-out crowd saw 449 runs. They saw a smidgen less than 70% of them smashed in fours and sixes. They also saw a dozen wickets, but of course that didn't matter nearly as much as it did at the MCG on Friday.

They went home happy. Not so much with the result, but with the spectacle. Here's hoping they made it through the howling wind in one piece. And without being bothered by birds.