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Paarl Royals win derby thriller by one run

football02 January 2026 19:34| © MWP
By:Patrick Compton
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Paarl Royals © PhotoShelter

Paarl Royals and MI Cape Town played out a thriller at Boland Park on Friday night, with the home team squeaking home by one run in their SA20 game that kept the capacity crowd enthralled until the final ball.

MI Cape Town barely deserved to lose the contest, but the reigning champions’ third loss means that they remain bottom of the log with just two points from a washed-out game against Durban’s Super Giants while Royals moved up into mid-table with their second win.

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Just a day after the SA20’s first Super Over at the Wanderers, the two teams gave the fans another absorbing contest in this western Cape derby. Chasing a formidable 182 for victory, it all came down to the final over from Ottneil Baartman who had seemingly helped secure victory with two wickets in his second over after going for 19 in his first.

The medium-pacer proved able – just – to defend the 15 runs MI Cape Town needed to secure what would have been the highest winning total in SA20 at the ground with Rashid Khan (35 off 18 balls) and Kagiso Rabada holing out to Jordan Hermann and Lhuan-dre Pretorius in the deep. Needing to strike a six for victory off the last ball, George Linde crashed his square drive agonisingly short of the rope for just a four, leaving his team one run shy of their goal as they finished on 180 for eight.

Baartman, who had earlier claimed the vital wickets of Rassie van der Dussen (59 in 42 balls) and Jason Smith in four balls, finished with 4/51.

The Boland Park pitch, normally low and slow, played much better than expected with both teams enjoying productive power-plays (Royals 66 and MI Cape Town 64). Ryan Rickelton (36 in 20 balls) and Van der Dussen raced to 77 in 7.5 overs for the first wicket before Rickelton was undone by the first of Pretorius’s two vital catches in the deep. Thereafter it looked as if Royals would run away with the game after Baartman, Nqobani Mokoena (1/29 in four) and mystery spinner Sikandar Raza (3/27 in four) chewed their way through the frail middle-order of the visitors.

But Khan and Linde had other ideas, combining to add a lightning half-century partnership for the seventh wicket to take Cape Town to the brink of victory.

Earlier, Pretorius slammed a magnificent unbeaten 98 in 65 balls to enable Paarl Royals to reach 181 for three wickets – a formidable total in what is usually considered a ground where teams struggle to get much beyond 150.

Pretorius just missed his first SA20 ton, taking 15 off Rabada’s final over, but failing to score off the final ball wide outside his off-stump. The beefy 19-year-old left-hander struck 10 fours and two sixes in his innings that was conspicuous for his mastery of picking length and his strong wrists.

Pretorius and Jersey-born fellow opener Asa Tribe set up the innings with a century partnership in 64 balls with Tribe going to his debut SA20 half-century in 34 balls with five fours and a six. Both men played some excellent shots against some erratic bowling in the power-play as they reached 66 in six overs, making full use of the new ball that came off the dry, grassless pitch with some pace to start with before slowing up in the later overs.

Tribe eventually fell to Khan, caught on the boundary by Nicholas Pooran who saved a number of runs with some athletic stops on the fence. Skipper David Miller promoted himself to three in the order and struck three fours in his cameo of 19 before top-edging a slow bouncer from Trent Boult to short fine-leg.

Sikandar Raza came and went, Khan’s second victim after being trapped leg before by the legspinner, but it was Pretorius who maintained the momentum of the innings to the end.

Khan finished with 2/31 off his four overs with Boult claiming 1/33. Rabada, working his way back to fitness, went wicketless for 46 runs in his four overs.

PAARL ROYALS: Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Asa Tribe, Rubin Herman, Kyle Verreynne (wk), David Miller (capt), Sikandar Raza, Delano Potgieter, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Nqobani Mokoena, Bjorn Fortuin, Ottneil Baartman

MI CAPE TOWN: Rassie van der Dussen, Ryan Rickelton (wk), Jason Smith, Nicholas Pooran, Jacques Snyman, Tom Moores, George Linde, Trent Boult, Rashid Khan (capt), Kagiso Rabada, Dane Piedt.

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