A sold-out opening game, a packed house in pink, and a convincing all-round performance. The Paarl Royals well and truly bought the Gees at the Boland Park, as the Royals kicked off their SA20 2024 campaign with a 27-run victory over Pretoria Capitals on Friday. The eminent feature of the game apart from Andile Phehlukwayo‘s stellar all round performance proved to be the nature of the pitch the match was played on.
This match once again proved the beauty of the game of cricket is also dependent on the weather and pitch conditions much to the likes of the skills possessed by the batters and the bowlers.
Pitch Condition and Teams:
The slowish pitch on the Boland surface meant that the score around 155-160 would be enough for the team batting first to restrict the opposition and the Royals exactly did that taking full advantage of the slowish and sluggish nature of the pitch. Considering the wicket Royals who was put into bat by the Pretoria Capitals added the likes of Bjorn Fortuin and Tabraiz Shamsi to their squad in addition to West Indian allrounder Fabien Allen who could role his arm over if required.
On the other hand last seasons finalists Pretoria Capitals missed the services of captain Wayne Parnell and injured strike bowler Anrich Nortje and had to content with the services of experienced England off spinner Adil Rashid and South African Senuran Muthusamy to their disposal. However they won the toss and put Paarl Royals to bat on a tricky wicket. Lot of England players were in action in the match especially at the top of the order with both set of openers in each team being English and all of them explosive.
Royals opening blitz and then a sudden fall out.
Putting into bat first, English and Paarl openers. Jason Roy and Jos Buttler started cautiously before the former opened his arms to smash a few boundaries to give his team a solid start.
After seeing the ball for the first few overs Roy and Buttler launched an attack on bowler Ethan Bosch in the third over to smash 19 runs of it and gained momentum after it till the fifth over scoring 43 runs at brisk pace in 4.4 overs before Roy fell on attempting a slowish ball outside off from James Neesham struck it on the stumps . Buttler followed the next over and the slump started in the Royals middle order with Wihan Lubbe falling for a hard fought 11 of 14 balls and making Royals wonder reeling at 56 for 3 at time out.
Captain Miller, Phehlukwayo’s take charge to propel Paarl to 160 runs
During Timeout ,having been pegged on the backfoot with a couple of blows, the hosts were treading with caution to keep the scoreboard ticking in the middle scoring anything around 150 to keep heir chances alive on this slowish wicket.
In came skipper David Miller at No.4 and took control of proceedings. His stoic innings of 41 was laced with 4 boundaries and alongside Mitchell Van Burren with whom he stitched 61 runs helped resurrect the innings. But it was Andile Phehlukwayo‘s quickfire cameo lower down the order that gave momentum to the team. In just 14 balls, the all-rounder struck four fours and a six for his 28 that set the Royals on course for a 150-plus total, which is challenging for the chasing team given the conditions.
Andile Phehlukwayo’s who in the previous season had a special liking for Pretoria capitals having scored runs against them once again showed his pyrotechnics with the bat on a difficult pitch to guide his team to 160 runs on a slowish wicket.
Brisk start but faltered chase
With the likes of dangerous English T20 openers Will Jacks and Phil Salt to their credit, Pretoria were on the way to make a mockery of the target with Phil Salt who just returned from an emphatic career defining T20I series in the West Indies in swashbuckling form starting from where he stopped in the Caribbean Islands scoring 14 runs of the first over itself. However in the next over itself South African bowler Lungi Ngidi got better of Will Jacks at other end to start the wicket flow for Royals.
This didnt falter Salt’s approach as he reached 30 of 16 balls within five overs of the chase and after the first six overs Pretoria Capitals with salt firing was at the comfortable position at 54 for 2 scoring 9 an over on a slowish wicket in pursuit of 160 and were clearly ahead of Royals at that point who managed 44 runs at the end of their Powerplay.
Bowlers apply the choke
Post powerplay Salt alongside Rillie Russow who scored a brisk 29 of 18 propelled his teams score to 80 runs within first 10 overs leaving only 80 in the backend of the innings with the likes of experienced Colin Ingram and all rounder James Neesham to follow , the Capitals looked like they were comfortably cruising toward their target, despite having lost wickets.
Opener Phil Salt was settled at one end, but then arrived Tabraiz Shamsi’s game changing moment. The spinner trapped Salt plumb in front in the 11th over, and the visitors immediately felt the heat. Two overs later, Bjorn Fortuin’s direct hit sent Corbin Bosch packing and it was followed by the golden arm of Wihan Lubbe removing Colin Ingram on his first delivery of the night. From thereon, the Royals bowlers were right on the money, taking pace off the ball that was now turning old, leaving no room whatsoever for the batters to free their arms.
Captain David Miller showed astute leadership in rotating his bowlers in the form of Bjorn Fortuin and Tabraiz Shamsi with later giving only 19 runs in his four overs stemmed the flow of runs which added pressure on the Pretoria batters. On the other hand stoic bowling from Lungi Ngidi , Obed Mccoy and all rounder Andile Phehlukwayo who was instrumental with the bat shined with the ball too bowling slower balls on the surface which had become slower in the process drying up boundaries for the Capitals.
This bowling from Royals propelled them to a point where they were on a verge of securing a bonus point required to save 10 runs in the last over of the match bowled by Andile Phehlukwayo. However James Neesham took Phehlukwayo to cleaners smashing three boundaries from first three balls before being out caught on the last ball of the innings granting Paarl Royals a comfortable 27 runs victory over Pretoria Capitals.
Captains views and Road Ahead.
Losing captain James Neesham stated that :Not an ideal surface but you can’t have belters in every game. We did well to restrict them to 160. They bowled really well especially in the middle overs. They used the slower balls and didn’t give us same deliveries in a row. You don’t take too much with such a loss, the surface will be different in a couple of days.
We have a lot of experience and it is a case of dusting ourselves off. We came here yesterday and the practice pitch was also similar, so there was nothing wrong with the preparation. I don’t think it was a bad surface but we needed to adapt better.
Winning Captain David Miller after his teams win said: It was a bit tight after the powerplay but the guys brought it back and executed the plans. Great finish and quite pleased. We have bolstered our bowling attack and have the confidence to defend totals. We squeezed nicely in the middle and brought it back. I think 140-150 was a par score. This competition has grown from strength to strength from last year, much like last year the grounds have been full which is nice to see.
Andile Phehlukwayo was adjudged the player of the match for his all round display of 28 runs of 16 balls and taking two wickets for 29 runs with 15 scored in his last over stated : It was good being out on the park. The wicket was quite tough in the beginning but the bowlers bowled well and brought us back into the game.
Pretoria Capitals: first 10 overs – 80/3, next 10 overs – 53/4 and 15 off those runs came in the final over when the game was settled. That just sums up their chase. They were in the hunt until the halfway mark but lost the plot thereafter. The perfect choke, the perfect end, the perfect start to the season for Miller’s army who with 4 points in their kitty, will now move on to their second assignment in two days’ time, against the same opponent at Centurion.