The fourth edition of the SA20 lives in interesting times. In the space of the first 10 days of 2026, the tournament has countenanced its first ever tie and resultant super over, a one-run win, its highest individual innings, its first hattrick - both in the same match, no less - and its third, fourth and fifth no results; the most in a single season. Not forgetting the fire that blazed onto the scene.

And all at grounds filled with spectators who came for the cricket and the marketing bells and whistles. They were out in force again at Boland Park on Saturday to watch third-placed Paarl Royals play Pretoria Capitals, who were fourth. A fire in the mountains around Franschhoek, some 30 kilometres to the north, sent heavy smoke billowing toward the ground long before the start of the match. Higher in the sky than that, the sun beat down mercilessly - the temperature would reach 38 degrees Celsius - on a venue where shade is scarce.

But still they queued in their thousands; carrying deck chairs and beach umbrellas and cooler boxes and decked out in their bright pink Paarl shirts. They saw Pretoria shamble to 74/6 in the 12th, and wriggle off that hook to reach 138/9. Then the home side dawdled to 117/6. The pitch, to be fair, was a sluggish grinch.

All that took the crowd's gaze off the game was the fire that broke out in the grassy parking lot immediately west of the ground early in Paarl's reply. Spectators turned their backs on the cricket and stared through a wire fence at the flames climbing metres into the sooty sky just 20 metres away, perhaps fearful of their cars being reduced to lumps of melted, mangled metal. The ground's senior managers hastened towards the looming disaster, but, happily, firefighters pounced promptly and a crisis was averted.

"We did notice [the fire]," Richard das Neves, Paarl's assistant coach, said. "There's have been a hell of a lot of fires in the past few days, including around [the team hotel]. "We were scrambling for DLS in case we had to get off the field. But if there's anywhere in the world where the firefighters know what they're doing, it's here."

Asked if the Pretoria players in the field were aware, Keshav Maharaj said, "A fire in the parking lot? Wow! There was a lot of smoke out there, so I assumed it was that."

Drama on and off the field! It's difficult to imagine a better day or day/night out anywhere in South Africa this summer than going to a game in the SA20. That's if there is a match near you. All six franchises are based in the north of the country or around the coast, which shuts the vast central belly of the country out of the competition. That will remain the case at least until 2028, when expansion could be on the cards. Should we be prepared for Royal Challengers Bloemfontein one of these years?

Or do we steel ourselves for the tournament shrinking in stature once the all-IPL franchise owners' current agreements with the league expire in 2033? Reports from Australia say SuperSport and Sundar Raman - who between them own 50% of the SA20 - are considering selling their shares. And with chunks of the BBL, which is currently owned by CA and Australia's state associations, set to be auctioned to private owners this year, the money may go there instead.

Questions like those can't be answered now. But they will hang over the tournament in their respective good and bad ways. Even so, it's important to keep an eye on the long term as well as the more immediate pictures.

Especially when the latter threatens to overwhelm our attention. Like it did at the Wanderers on New Year's Day, when Durban's Super Giants replied to Joburg Super Kings' 205/4 with 205/8. The super over itself was nowhere as emphatic as the batting in the match proper: Richard Gleeson limited Durban's Evan Jones and Jos Buttler to 5/1, and Joburg responded with eight for no wicket. Rilee Rossouw hit Noor Ahmed's second and third offerings for four to settle the issue.

In Paarl the next day, Lhuan-dre Pretorius' 65-ball 98 fuelled Royals' 181/3. Then Ottneil Baartman and Sikandar Raza split seven wickets to limit Mumbai Indians Cape Town to 180/8.

A Saturday double-header awaited in Johannesburg and Centurion. Would we see more of the kind of close matches that are the lifeblood of any viable tournament? No. Joburg's game against Sunrisers Eastern Cape at the Wanderers as well as the match between Pretoria and Durban up the road were washed out without so much as a toss.

Nothing was close about the next day's encounter at Newlands, where Raza took 4/13 in Cape Town's shambolic total of 88. Paarl won by seven wickets with seven overs to spare.

Three days later at Kingsmead, Shai Hope hit a record 118 not out off 69 - 90 of them reaped in fours and sixes - in Pretoria's 201/4. Buttler's riposte was an unbeaten 97 off 52, but Durban fell short by 15 runs - not least because Lungi Ngidi removed David Wiese, Sunil Narine and Gerald Coetzee with successive deliveries.

The day after that, a temporary floodlight failure followed by lightning meant only Joburg's innings came to pass in a game against Paarl at the Wanderers.

Talk about swings and roundabouts, some of them damp, others aflame, still others shimmering with achievement. Interesting times indeed.