MI Cape Town defeated the Paarl Royals in a close game at Boland Park despite a determined performance from Jos Buttler. The England white-ball captain appeared to be able to chase down MICT’s score of 142 by alone, but Jofra Archer’s removal of him for 68 in the penultimate over ended Royals’ chances.
The problem at Paarl was again another difficult pitch, as has been the case at a number of locales. After being put into bat, MI Cape Town was reduced to 9 for 3 thanks to Bjoin Fortuin’s two wickets. As the third batter, Sam Curran was out after a mix-up with Dewald Brewis. A 63-run partnership between Rassie van der Dussen (49 off 42) and Grant Roelofson helped the visitors recover (34 off 30). To maintain MICT below 150, Tabraiz Shamsi and Lungi Ngidi arranged another lower-order collapse after George Linde’s fast addition of 24.
However, as the Paarl Royals discovered when they fell to 30/4 by the seventh over and George Linde claimed two wickets, it was by no means an easy goal to chase. Buttler and David Miller, an experienced duo, spearheaded a small comeback with a 49-run stand that Kagiso Rabada cut down just as it was ready to take off. Buttler persisted and appeared to be going it alone after reaching 50 before edging Archer’s first legitimate delivery of the 19th over. The Royals needed 22 at that point to win off of 12 to win. Ultimately, they would be outscored by 13 runs.
Lets have a look at the scorecard.
