Despite going down to Pretoria Capitals on Tuesday night, Paarl Royals secured the last semi-final spot for the inaugural SA20 season.
Ongama Gcwabe in Gqeberha — Paarl Royals hung on at SuperSport Park to qualify ahead of Durban’s Super Giants only on net run rate.
Paarl Royals had a job to do on Tuesday night after a Heinrich Klaasen-driven Durban’s Super Giants put the Royals under pressure on the points table. Heading into the match the Royals needed to avoid losing by anything over 100 runs to progress to the next stage ahead of the Super Giants.
Skipper David Miller opted to field first at SuperSport Park trusting his batting unit to chase whatever the Capitals set or at least lose by 99 runs or less.
Capitals’ Kusal Mendis put on a show announcing himself a force at the top of the order alongside the destructive Phil Salt. Mendis was the more destructive this time around with a 41-ball 80 runs which included eight 4s and four 6s while Salt scored 39 runs off 21 deliveries.
The reliable Lungi Ngidi accounted for both openers putting an end to a 69-run partnership between the pair.
Colin Ingram (41) and James Neesham (22) went on full attack mode towards the end of the innings pushing the Capitals’ total to a mammoth 226-5.
In reply the Paarl Royals had a nervous start to the chase losing three wickets in the first powerplay. Jason Roy, Paul Stirling and Mitchell van Buuren were the early victims to the Capitals’ quicks.
It was up to Jos Buttler (70) and Miller to get their team to the semi-finals with the Royals 159 runs behind the Capitals’ total. Miller fell for a 17-ball 11 runs. Andile Phehlukwayo (3) and Evan Jones (0) fell in the same over setting the game up for a nervous finish with four overs to go and 112 runs to win.
Bjorn Fortuin and Ngidi finished unbeaten as the Royals suffered a 59 run defeat but most importantly qualified for the semi-finals.
Scorecard
Pretoria Capitals: 226-5 (Mendis 80, Ingram40, Ngidi 2/39, Phehlukwayo 1/43)
Paarl Royals: 167-9 (Buttler 70, Morgan 24, Neesham 3/28, Rashid 2/18)
Paarl Capitals won by 59 runs
