Was Quinton de Kock watching? Maybe not. But he would have known, by the time he walked out to open the batting with Jonny Bairstow for Paarl Royals against Sunrisers Eastern Cape at Boland Park on Saturday, what Ryan Rickelton had done at Newlands the night before.

Rickelton rocketed to 113 off 63 balls in what turned out to be a vain attempt to drag Mumbai Indians Cape Town to what would have been a record SA20 chase. Set 233 by Durban's Super Giants, Cape Town were halted 15 runs short.

To many, Rickelton's performance mattered more than the result. Because the deadline for the naming of squads for the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka and India in February and March is Friday. And there will likely be space for only one of De Kock or Rickelton - both Johannesburg-born, hard-hitting, left-handed top order wicketkeeper-batters - among South Africa's chosen few.

It was Rickelton's first century in 41 innings across all levels and formats. Twenty-two of those innings were in Asia, but it would be simplistic to write off his chances of selection based on that fact alone. For one thing, Rickelton scored his most recent hundred before Friday's blast in February in a Champions Trophy match against Afghanistan in Karachi. For another, he made three half-centuries amid his 388 runs at a strike rate of 150.97 in 14 innings for Mumbai Indians in this year's IPL.

Rickelton doesn't have a problem playing in the subcontinent. But being there can become complicated for him, what with its restrictive environment for prominent players.

Asked at his press conference after Friday's game whether the players whose selection for the T20 World Cup seemed uncertain would try to use the SA20 to settle the issue, Rickelton said, "This tournament is a platform for players to put their hands up but I'm definitely not thinking about it. I want to win this tournament with this team.

"It's nice to be in a change of kit with a different group [compared to South Africa]. It's a different feel, a different experience. You're just trying to enjoy the game. When you're not finding that in India it can be quite hard."

That said, Rickelton did leave room for the converse - that he is the best version of himself as a cricketer at Newlands, where he has scored three centuries in five first-class innings, among them the 259 he made in a Test against Pakistan in January. In T20 terms, he has scored more runs at Newlands than anywhere else. He has had one fewer innings in the format in Cape Town than at his home ground, the Wanderers, but he has hammered 225 more T20 runs in the shadow of Table Mountain than in Joburg.

"I've drawn a lot of confidence playing at Newlands, and I try to think about the good things," Rickelton said. "I can be quite negative, so I hopped on those [positive] things. I think I'm happier in Cape Town. I just enjoy it. The conditions have been good for batting these last couple of years, and I enjoy the lifestyle here.

"Sometimes in cricket we dive into our heads very easily and it's tough to get away from that. I think that's what makes touring the sub quite hard - it's tough to get out of your own head. The beauty of Cape Town, and of South Africa, is that you get the opportunity to be outside and experience more than the game of cricket, especially the game of cricket in your head.

"I have family and friends here, and I had the opportunity to not even think about the game today until I had to think about it; until we walked onto the park. That's probably the biggest blessing and the biggest enjoyment I get out of playing at Newlands."

Runs don't come as easily on Paarl's slow surface, so De Kock's 24-ball 42 on Saturday was worth more than the sum of its parts. He did his bit, but the visitors had slipped to 89/3 in the 12th when Jordan Hermann took guard to smash an unbeaten 62 off 28 and take Paarl to a challenging total of 186/4.

Way too challenging, as it turned out. The home side crashed to 49 all out inside a dozen overs, the worst batting performance in SA20 history. So it was commendable of Kyle Verreynne to, reportedly, volunteer to take Paarl's press conference. What, he was asked, did he think would be the major points of discussion at the next team meeting?

"Small targets, we've got to get to 50 first," Verreynne said with a cheeky grin to own his joke. "There's always potential for a game like this in a tournament. It's come at the start for us, but we've had really good prep. We've got a changeroom of guys who are all hitting the ball nicely, so we've got to start again. If we try and tweak too many things and look for too many answers we'll probably come short."

An important factor in SEC's thumping win was the furious, focused fast bowling of Anrich Nortje, who took 4/13 in 18 emphatic deliveries. No doubt his name was already on the World Cup squad list. Now it will be underlined.

Saturday's game was Nortje's lucky 13th of the year - significant in the life of a player who has known too many struggles with injury. Yet the way he tore towards the crease and let fly with visceral violence suggested he knew nothing of the inherent dangers, to himself, of bowling at express pace to earn a living.

"You've got to trust your body; you can't worry about this and that," Nortje said. "You know when something's wrong. By then it's probably too late. But you have to trust whatever you have to trust to get the ball in the right area."

Despite his various mishaps, Nortje has managed to stay busy. He played at least 36 matches a year from 2021 to 2024, topping out at 43 last year. But fewer than half of those games - 64 of 155 - were for South Africa. That's a consequence of his injuries but also of his choice to concentrate on his T20 career, which comes with a cluttered schedule. They are, perhaps, two sides of the same coin.

"When I've been out [injured] I've been motivated to come back better and try and build on what you can remember and what you had," Nortje said. "It's probably the best time to build when you're not injured and you go into the off-season. But there are no proper off-seasons anymore. It's always cricket, cricket ... So you're going to try and remember as much as you can from last season and take it into the next one."

Nortje and De Kock should get their next chances to impress on Monday, when Paarl will be away to Sunrisers Eastern Cape on a probably more willing pitch at St George's Park. Nortje is from Kariega, just 28 kilometres north-west of Gqeberha. He has bowled 3,301 of his total of 20,105 deliveries - and claimed 57 of his 613 first-class wickets - at the home of South African cricket, where he has a T20 economy rate of 7.22; lower than on 27 of the 47 grounds on which he has played T20s. De Kock has had 35 first-class, list A and T20 innings at St George's Park, with a highest score of 86.

Will Rickelton be watching? Probably not.