Dewald Brewis (26 not out off 16 balls) and George Linde (29 not out off eight balls) gave MI Cape Town the win with 5.1 overs to spare. Linde, in particular, was in destructive mood, hitting four sixes in one over off Super Giants new Australian Marcus Stoinis to end the match quickly.
Earlier, Heinrich Klaasen (66 off 43 balls) and Kane Williamson (56 not out off 44 balls) did their best to take the Super Giants to a competitive 149/6 after falling to 22/4. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough on the night as Lance Klusener's side are now close to missing out on the playoffs this season.
Earlier in the second game, England batsman Joe Root played a brilliant unbeaten inning of 78 runs and took two wickets as Pall Royals reached the Betway SA20 Playoff at Boland Park on Saturday afternoon.
The Royals became the first team of Season 3 to qualify for the next stage of the competition after an 11-run win over the Pretoria Capitals. Royals are on top with 24 points. Root showed all his experience and class on the slow surface at Boland Park in the scorching afternoon sun. The former England captain was the epitome of conservatism as he drove beautifully up the field, but also showed he had the ability to innovate with a brilliant switch hit off Will Jacks.
The rest of the Royals batsmen faded in the Paarl sun before captain David Miller came to the crease. Miller immediately injected some excitement into the innings with an unbeaten 29 off 18 balls, which included two powerful slog-sweeps for six runs. It was part of an unbroken partnership of 59 runs off 33 balls that took the Royals to 140/4.
“The most important thing is to read the surface and find the score you need. Today was a case of being brave enough to go deeper,” said Root, player of the match, according to the SA20 press release. And maybe you can have better matchups at the line. I think we did that pretty well.” The pace of the Capitals' run-chase was halted from the beginning due to the spin attack of five Royals players Bjorn Fortuin, Dunith Velazquez, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Nakaba Peter and Root.
This was the first time in Betway SA20 history that a team bowled all 20 overs using only spin bowlers. Fortuin (2/20) and Velazquez struck in the powerplay to take Capitals to 23/3. However, Jacques took a page from fellow Englishman Root's book by scoring a solid 56 off 53 balls to stabilize the Capitals innings. Jacques and Kyle Verreynne (30 off 33 balls) put on a partnership of 77 runs off 67 balls to bring the visitors back into the contest, but ultimately they could not deny the Royals victory on a humid day.
Mujeeb took the big wicket of Vereen, before Root made his debut with the bat by taking two wickets in the death overs. Root said, “Staying as low as possible. It's difficult to catch the ball because of the lack of bounce. I didn't think the ball would spin so much. Just play to my ability. Then it's about finishing it off.” Played a brilliant innings and were close to equalising. Great game of cricket, really enjoyed my time here, want to continue to win.” (ANI)
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