The Paarl Royals completed an unbeaten record at home in the SA20 after a victory over Durban Super Giants on Monday.

Paarl Royals hosted the Durban Super Giants at Boland Park on Monday. As was the case on Saturday, the pitch conditions seemed to favour spinners more than seam bowlers.

The match got underway with the Durban Super Giants winning the toss and electing to bat first. Unfortunately De Kock got bowled for 0 off 3 balls by edging a ball from Bjorn Fortuin onto the stumps. 

Fellow opener Brandon King also got bowled by Kwena Maphaka with a ball that moved back into middle stump (King ended up with 3 off 7 balls).

Initially Bryce Parsons showed some positive intent by rotating the strike and hitting two fours in his score of 16 runs off 14 balls but unfortunately he got caught in the out-field by Rubin Hermann off the bowling of Wellalage. 

When Williamson came to the wicket, the Super Giants had 4 runs for two wickets. 

Kane Williamson offered a lot of resistance by scoring a much needed 45 runs off 36 balls. Other than rotating the strike quite well by playing good shots such as cutting Bjorn Fortuin for four and hitting Galiem over long-on for six. He also pulled a short-pitched ball from Joe Root for four. He eventually got out to an excellently executed arm-ball by Bjorn Fortuin (who came around the wicket) and got bowled by a ball that deviated off the pitch.

The top scorer for the Super Giants was Marcus Stoinis. He came to the wicket when the Super Giants were 34 runs for 3 wickets down. He had some good fortune early on by edging a ball off Mujeeb for four. After the outside edge for four, he spent a few overs consolidating by rotating the strike and eventually found the boundary by pulling Wellalage past deep mid-wicket for four. He also played Joe Root quite well by hitting him for three successive boundaries in the 18th over (specifically two on the leg side and one straight past his head). 

After running out Wiaan Mulder, he subsequently hit a short-pitched ball from Mujeeb over his head for four. Stoinisended the innings with 55 runs not out off 40 balls.

The notable performers for the Paarl Royals bowlers in the first innings was Bjorn Fortuin and Kwena Maphaka. Bjorn Fortuin ended the his 4 overs with figures of 2 wickets for 20 runs and having got the prized scalps of De Kock and Williamson.

Kwena Maphaka on the other hand ended his spell of 4 overs with 2 wickets for 22 runs having also got Klaasen out caught and bowled in addition to his earlier wicket of Brandon King.

The Paarl Royals got off to a difficult start to their second innings when the experienced Joe Root got given out LBW off the bowling of Subrayen off the very first ball of the innings. Rubin Hermann came to the wicket with his side one wicket down with no runs on the board.

Rubin Hermann would go on to score 59 runs off 51 balls. He scored his first boundary by hitting Subrayenover extra cover for four. For the next 3 overs he mainly scored singles and doubles until he swept a rare short-pitched ball from Noor Ahmed over fine leg for four. 

Throughout his innings he seemed to punish anything short (specifically from Ahmed and Maharaj) and would hit them for a boundary by either rocking onto his back foot and pulling the bowlers or sweeping them. 

Prior to getting caught out in the deep off Stoinis, he also hit him for a six over deep mid-wicket.

Lhuan-dre Pretorius supported Hermann by scoring 43 runs off 29 balls. 

Throughout his innings he played sweep shots over mid-wicket for four. Other than some strong shots on the off side, he also played some late cuts past the third man region for four which showed great awareness. 

Unfortunately he got out trying to reverse sweep a full toss off the bowling of Keshav Maharaj and the ball hit the middle stump. At the end of the innings he was visibly frustrated with his shot selection.

Dinesk Karthik also scored 21 runs off 15 balls hitting two sixes which kept the momentum going. He regularly ran hard between the wickets and rotated the strike quite well.  

Jon-Jon Smuts got him out by finding the outside edge of his bat where De Kock subsequently took a good catch.

From a Super Giants point of view, the bowling could have been a bit better. Tactically I felt that KeshavMaharaj generally got his field placings right and tended to get wickets at key moments. I felt that he used his spinners really well and was very impressed with his decision to put Jon-Jon Smuts on and he subsequently got a key wicket of Karthik to keep DSG in the contest.

Notable performers from DSG during the second innings for me was Noor Ahmed who bowled 4 overs for 25 runs and received no wickets. Whilst he didn’t take a wicket, I felt that he played a crucial role in restricting the boundaries which put pressure on the Royals and allowed other bowlers to take wickets.  

Prenelan Subrayen also played a pivotal role by getting 1 wicket for 21 runs off his 4 overs whilst Smuts got 1 wicket for 22 runs off his 3 overs.

The result of the match went in the favor of the Royals who won by 6 wickets with 1 ball left. This has been one of (if not my favorite SA20 games) that I have watched so far as both teams fought right until the very last boundary was hit.