Paarl — MI Cape Town have resurrected their Betway SA20 campaign with a tense 13-run victory over the Paarl Royals at Boland Park on Saturday.
The visitors were on a two-game losing streak, and were pushed all the way, but managed to complete the “double” over their winelands neighbours.
It certainly was a hard-fought victory with the Royals remaining in the hunt virtually to the last few balls.
MI Cape Town’s 142/9 seemed to be below-par on admittedly another slow surface, especially when Jos Buttler was still at the crease and manoeuvring the ball around the field.
But when Buttler was removed by his England teammate Jofra Archer with 22 runs still required off 11 balls, the momentum tilted in favour of the visitors.
West Indian Odeon Smith then held his nerve to close out the final over despite Evan Jones swinging with all his might.
The Royals will rue not having anyone to stay with Buttler long enough as George Linde (2/23) took care of the home team’s top order. Only captain David Miller (28) contributed anything of substance, but his team needed a lot more from him on the day.
The MI Cape Town innings followed a similar pattern earlier with Royals following their backyard plan with precision. It revolves around the tournament’s leading wicket-taker Bjorn Fortuin (2/23) striking in the Powerplay and remaining miserly for the duration of the innings.
Fortuin executed it with perfection once again by removing both MI Cape Town openers and assisting a run out to leave the visitors reeling at 9/3 in the third over.
At that stage it seemed that MI Cape Town were melting in the searing mid-day Boland heat.
It is though a situation Rassie van der Dussen has often found himself in for the Proteas and the 33-year-old used all his experience to rebuild the MI Cape Town innings.
Van der Dussen (49) found an able partner in Grant Roelofsen (34) as the pair shared a 63-run partnership off 57 balls.
It may have been fairly sedate, but it was exactly what the visitors required to allow George Linde to add the impetus when he joined Van der Dussen. Linde clubbed 24 off just 14 balls (2x4, 1x6) that took MI Cape Town past the 100-run mark.
The Royals, however, finished strongly through Lungi Ngidi (2/21) after Tabraiz Shamsi returned to form with 2/27 as MI Cape Town’s innings closed on 142/9.
It may not have seemed sufficient at the half-time break, but ultimately was enough to get their campaign back on track heading into their final home game at Newlands on Monday.
IOL Sport