David Miller was at his imperious best with a magnificent, unbeaten 71 from just 38 balls to lead the Paarl Royals to an unlikely five-wicket victory with just two balls to spare in their SA20 match against the high-flying Sunrisers Eastern Cape at St.George’s Park on Wednesday afternoon.
Requiring 150 to win, the Royals slumped to an unpromising 35 for four after seven overs, with the required asking rate quickly climbing to 10 per over until Miller’s magnificent intervention with four fours and five characteristic sixes, either flicked over the legside or straight driven.
Miller added 114 for the fifth wicket with the impressive Keegan Lion-Cachet, who struggled for timing for much of his innings, scoring at less than a run a ball, but recognised the value of his wicket and batted for his captain to keep his team in the contest.
Lion-Cachet struck three vital boundaries in the final two overs before slashing the fourth ball of the final over to backward point to depart for 45 from 40 balls (6x4) with just one run required. But the drama ended in anti-climax as English seamer Lewis Gregory bowled a wide to new batsman Delano Potgieter to hand victory to the visitors.
EXCELLENT MOKOENA BOWLING
Earlier, Jordaan Hermann top-scored with 47 for the stuttering Sunrisers Eastern Cape as they reached a total of 149 all out after choosing to bat first, and the visitors claimed wickets at regular intervals with 19-year-old seamer Nqobani Mokoena much to the fore with an excellent 4-34 bowling at the top and bottom of the innings.
Before this innings, the right-armer had a total of just three wickets in the T20 format.
Quinton de Kock (7) edged a drive in Mokoena’s first over to keeper Kyle Verreynne, and SEC captain, Tristan Stubbs (17) pulled a Mokoena short ball hard and flat to deep square leg.
Englishman Jonny Bairstow blew hot at the top of the innings with 33 from 20 balls before miscuing a drive against Ottneil Baartman to Asa Tribe, who held a fine, diving catc,h while Matthew Breetzke (13) provided a return catch to Delano Potgieter attempting a flick to the leg side.
Hermann’s fine 47 from (35 balls) ended with a missed sweep against Afghan mystery spinner Mujeeb-ur-Rahman (4-0-30-1), and Marco Jansen’s breezy 17 from nine balls was finished by another boundary catch by Tribe off Baartman (3-36).
Bjorn Fortuin had no wickets to show for fine control, but the left arm spinner can certainly claim a couple of ‘assists’ for his miserly 4-0-16-0 which included bowling the first over.
The Royals' run chase was quickly in trouble with Jansen (2-25) and Anrich Nortje (2-21) claiming a brace of early wickets each, with Asa Tribe (7) caught at mid off and Lhuan-dre Preorius (11) spectacularly caught down the legside by Quinton de Kock off Jansen, while Nortje had Rubin Hermann (9) caught behind before bowling Kyle Verreynne (3) off an inside edge.
But 36-year-old Miller was the epitome of calm and found a willing and equally calm ally in 23-year-old Lion-Cachet, and the men in pink were able to avenge their monster 143-run thrashing by ‘Orange Army’ at Boland Park three days ago.
SUNRISERS EASTERN CAPE: Jonny Bairstow, Quinton de Kock (wkt), Matthew Breetzke, Jordan Hermann, Tristan Stubbs (captain), Marco Jansen, Lewis Gregory, Senuran Muthusamy, Anrich Nortje, Adam Milne, Tharindu Rathnayake
PAARL ROYALS: Asa Tribe, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Rubin Hermann, Kyle Verreynne (wkt), David Miller (captain), Keegan Lion-Cachet, Delano Potgieter, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, Nqobani Mokoena, Bjorn Fortuin, Ottneil Baartman