NEW DELHI: Paarl Royals defeated Joburg Super Kings completed a comfortable run-chase as the home team strolled home with six wickets intact for their third win in succession.
The Joburg Super Kings batting order was held to 146/6 by the Royals, who were bowled out by Bjorn Fortuin, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Joe Root, and Dunith Wellalage.
In the Powerplay, Fortuin (2/22) took two wickets to start the JSK decline, which set the stage for Mujeeb (1/28) and the others.
“Very delighted, nice to get over the line. It was one of the wickets where we went with the spin and it worked out. I had too many options at one point which was great,” Royals captain David Miller said.
“We had them by the throat, but the last two overs let us down but that is the nature of the game. I thought it was a par score.”
If not for Donovan Ferreira’s undefeated 32 off 19 balls, which helped the Super Kings add 65 runs in the final five overs, and England’s double World Cup winner Jonny Bairstow (60 off 40 balls, 2×4, 3×6), it would have been much lower.
“I thought we had a competitive score, after they took wickets early on with their bowlers put us on the back foot and fair play to them,” Bairstow said.
“If you go a bit too early, then you might be 5-6 down early, but if you are brave enough to keep wickets in the back end, to exploit the shorter side then you get rewards at the end. If you’re brave enough to take it to the end, and having myself and Don with a bit of firepower to exploit the shorter side was great, but maybe 15-20 short.”
The Royals maintained control of the run chase despite a little setback as seamer Hardus Viljoen (2/23) quickly removed both Joe Root and Pretorius.
“The guys at the top batted really well and got us off to a good start which got us ahead of the game,” Miller added.
This season, Miller has excelled at his “finisher” role, joining Mitchell van Buuren (44 off 45 balls) for a 71-run stand for the fourth wicket.
By crushing Lutho Sipamla for a huge maximum, Miller finished the job in style and put the Royals in a strong position to guarantee a playoff berth.
“We’ve got an adaptable squad and we play according to the condition and the last two years we started really well and finished badly, and that is something we keep in mind and we have all bases covered for now,” he said.
