Pretoria Capitals, who still had a game remaining, became the first team to secure a berth in the semifinals of the inaugural SA20 with a thrilling one-wicket victory over MI Cape Town at Centurion on Saturday.
By letting out just a single off the first delivery and squeaking out the wicket of a well-established Senuran Muthusamy, Sam Curran had done well for the first five deliveries of the last over, defending just two runs. However, a limping Wayne Parnell of the Capitals, who had earlier left the game due to a groin injury, came through when his team needed to run two off the final ball to win.
Kusal Mendis led the charge in the initial 50-run stand as the Capitals successfully chased down their target of 160 runs, but Curran’s twin strikes in the sixth over forced them to regroup. They were reeling at 53/3 when Rashid Khan struck on the first ball of the seventh over, but Rilee Rossouw launched a counterattack with three sixes and as many boundaries in his 19-ball cameo of 40 to retake the lead for the Capitals. Odean Smith’s double strikes and some tight bowling from Rashid had the potential to derail the chase once more, but Muthusamy rallied the lower order and the tail to keep Capitals in the game.
Have a look at the latest match between Pretoria Capitals and Durban Super Giants.
Prior to Rassie van der Dussen’s aggressive fifty-run opening performance, none of the other MI Cape Town batsmen showed up. Up to three of them received starts, but neither one went past 16. Van der Dussen’s 29-ball attack, which included four sixes and as many fours, provided the foundation for Cape Town’s challenging 159; but, the team’s subsequent string of regular strikes prevented them from gaining any momentum. Jimmy Neesham was the best of the bowlers, taking two lower-order wickets in his four overs for just 26 runs, while Eathan Bosch and Anrich Nortje each picked up a pair of matching 2 for 37.
