Paarl Royals keep their cool to knock over Durban’s Super Giants

Paarl Royals picked apart a despondent Durban’s Super Giants at Kingsmead on Thursday night to win their SA20 fixture by five wickets.

Keshav Maharaj’s Durban side won the toss and went in to bat first, and looked composed after the first Powerplay session.

The Super Giants made a few changes in their batting order, with Quinton de Kock opening with Matthew Breetzke. The pair were going steady and were 50/0 after six overs.

Bjorn Fortuin grabbed the ball in the ninth over for Paarl and broke the home team’s opening partnership, after catching Breetzke off his own delivery.

In at No 3 instead of No 7 like their last game, Heinrich Klaasen arrived at the crease to partner De Kock, and had an early scare after David Miller dropped him off a Mujeeb Ur Rahman ball.

Mujeeb then got his wicket, but this time it was De Kock, who was caught on the boundary while trying to go big.

Kane Williamson and Klaasen continued with their poor batting form and both gave their wickets cheaply, gifting two easy catches to the Paarl Royals.

The Giants scoring slowed down heavily in the middle of their innings and seemed to have lost the momentum set by De Kock and Breetzke. After 15 overs, they had reached 107/4.

The last five overs were stellar for Paarl but dismal for Durban, with only 35 runs put on the board. This was despite a decent 59-run partnership between Wiaan Mulder and Jon-Jon Smuts.

Tight bowling from Paarl ensured that no sixes and just a single boundary was hit in the last five overs.

The formidable Royals opening pair of Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Joe Root did not execute as per usual on Thursday night, with Chris Woakes removing Root in the first over for a duck.

Pretorius looked deadly during Naveen-ul-Haq’s first over, but fell after he tried to smash Junior Dala over the ropes for the big one, with Maharaj taking the catch.

Ruben Hermann covered up for the shortfall of the openers, putting on a quick 44 off 22 balls (4x4, 3x6).

But Durban’s star attraction, Noor Ahmad, removed the big-hitting Hermann with the most spectacular delivery of the match. Ahmad bowled Hermann with a googly that ripped through his defence.

Paarl stayed around three runs ahead of the required run-rate throughout the middle of their batting innings, with Durban trying desperately to chase the game.

After 13 overs, Paarl were on 106/3 and needed 42 runs off 37 balls to win the match.

The DSG players looked defeated by the 18th over, especially after Paarl captain David Miller was dropped by Williamson.

Paarl eventually closed out the game with Dinesh Karthik slapping Naveen for a boundary to Durban out of their misery. | Independent Media Sport