Pretoria Capitals lose a thrilling battle against Paarl Royals in Centurion
The Pretoria Capitals, local team in the exciting SA20 cricket tournament which is currently underway, narrowly missed out on a victory in their second game of the tournament on Sunday at their home ground in Centurion in front of a packed SuperSport Park.
The Pretoria Capitals and Paarl Royals served up a thrilling run-fest in Game six of the Betway SA20 tournament at a sold-out SuperSport Park on Sunday.
The locals streamed through the turnstiles for the Capitals’ first home game of Season 2, and were given their money’s worth with over 400 runs scored between the teams and a close last-over finish.
Unfortunately, it was not to be for the home team and crowd, with the Royals doing “the double” over the Capitals with the visitors clinching a tense 10-run victory. The Royals were also victorious on Friday evening at Boland Park.
Photo: SA20
The experience of the Paarl outfit’s seamers proved to be the difference on the day, as they restricted the Capitals to 200/7 in response to their 210/3.
Player of the Match, Lungi Ngidi, set the tone upfront with two wickets in the first over of the Capitals’ run chase, when he removed both Phil Salt (0) and Theunis de Bruyn (4) before returning at the death to claim a further two wickets to finish with figures of 4/39.
But it was West Indies international, Obed McCoy, who showed his immense value by holding his nerve during a frenetic final over.
McCoy was tasked with defending just 14 runs off the last six deliveries. That was only the beginning of the drama with McCoy suffering from severe cramp which required assistance from the Royals medical team after each delivery.
The left-armer showed great character to close out the over as he delivered a mixture of slower balls and cutters that deceived Capitals tailender Hardus Viljoen.
The match was in the balance throughout with Rilee Rossouw (82 off 45 balls) and Will Jacks (58 off 34 balls) spearheading the Capitals’ chase with a partnership of 147 off only 77 balls.
Photo: SA20
It was a SA20 record for any wicket at Centurion, eclipsing the 141-run partnership that David Miller (75) and Mitchell van Buuren (72) had put together for the Royals earlier in the day.
Miller and Van Buuren were excellent for Royals, after opener Jos Buttler (39) had set the platform.
SuperSport Park also saw the first “Betway SA20 Catch a R2 million” prize winner on Sunday with Jochen Grobler claiming a clean one-handed catch off a Jacks strike into the crowd.
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