TimesofIndia.com from Gqeberha:
MI Cape Town continued their rampant run in the SA20 when they beat Paarl Royals by 39 runs in the first qualifier on Tuesday. With their comfortable win at St George’s Park in Gqeberha, MI Cape Town booked their place in the final at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on Saturday. Paarl Royals, meanwhile, will have another bite at the cherry when they take on the victor of the Eliminator between Joburg Super Kings and Sunrisers Eastern Cape.
MI Cape Town will enter the final with momentum on their side, picking their fifth win in a row and extended their unbeaten streak seven. The last time they tasted defeat was against the Paarl Royals on January 15.
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Royals, on the other hand, are headed in the other direction as they succumbed to their third loss in a row, having waltzed into the playoffs courtesy a flawless home record – just like MICT.
On Tuesday at St George’s Park, the Royals never looked like bothering MICT. Even when three of MI Cape Town’s wickets fell in the gap of six runs and eight balls. Or when David Miller and Dunith Wellalage built a 33-run stand and then Miller took the onus alongside Dinesh Karthik.
The PR captain Miller slammed three boundaries in the ninth Corbin Bosch over. He then went big on two consecutive balls for back-to-back sixes in the 14th over. Despite this big hitting, the Royals never really looked like getting close to MI Cape Town’s 200-run target.
The game was put beyond the Royals’ reach in the very first innings itself. St George’s Park had seen an average total of 129 this season with the highest coming from the bat of MI Cape Town batters (174/7) at the start of the season.
After the Royals won the toss and decided to field, they were put under the pump from the get go. Ryan Rickelton (44 from 27 balls) and Rassie van der Dussen (40 from 32 balls) continued their exploits this SA20 season. They quickly made their mark and raced off to 73/0 after the powerplay overs. Both the MICT batters dealt in boundaries with seven fours and four sixes between them.
Just when Paarl Royals appeared to have applied the brakes with three quick wickets, up stepped George Linde (26 from 14 balls) to shift the flow of the game.
MICT ended with a flourish, producing 74 runs from the last five overs – 15, 6, 9, 27, 17 respectively – to put the eventual outcome beyond any doubt. At the heart of the late flurry were Dewald Brevis (44* from 30 balls) and Delano Potgieter (32* from 17 balls).
