The Tshwane Spartans got their MSL campaign up and running with a tense eight-wicket victory over the Paarl Rocks at Boland Park yesterday
MSL T20 – Boland Park
Paarl Rocks (6 wickets)185
Vince 86*
Tshwane Spartans (2 wickets)188
Elgar 88*, De Bruyn 42, Klaasen 31*
RESULT: Spartans won by 8 wickets
The Tshwane Spartans got their MSL campaign up and running with a tense eight-wicket victory over the Paarl Rocks at Boland Park yesterday.
After suffering two successive washouts, the visitors desperately needed the win and it was set up by their senior players, particularly opening pair Dean Elgar and Theunis de Bruyn, who shared a 104-run opening stand.
Elgar would have been particularly pleased with his undefeated 88 off 60 balls (7×4, 2×6) that showed once again that the gritty left-hander is a highly under-valued white-ball cricketer.
He was fluent during the PowerPlay, running hard between the wickets with De Bruyn (42 off 33 balls) before unleashing a flurry of boundaries at the death just when the Rocks seemed to clawing their way back into the contest. Elgar was, though, well supported by Spartans captain Heinrich Klaasen, who ensured the visitors did not waste the solid start after AB de Villiers (19 off 10 balls) failed to light up Boland Park.
Klaasen took a particular liking to young Kerwin Mungaroo, who had earlier bowled particularly well, by the striking the seamer for two sixes in the penultimate over. That effectively closed the game out for the visitors, leaving the Rocks to contemplate a poor day in the field where they dropped a couple of catches in the swirling wind and mis-fielded on the boundary.
The Paarl Rocks faithful that once again came out in their numbers had hoped for so much more at the interval after English international James Vince starred on his debut with an undefeated 86 off just 53 balls.
This propelled the Rocks to 185/6 and they would have felt that score was totally defendable, but the visitors from the capital had other ideas.
Zaahier Adams
