PC vs PR

And with that, we come to the end of the league stages of the 2023 SA20. The Paarl Royals are the last team to make the semis, they'll have a re-match against the Pretoria Capitals at Wanderers for a spot in the finals tomorrow. Join us as we brace ourselves to type out a classic. For now, this is Rajarshi, signing off on behalf of myself and Arya. Good night!

Theunis de Bruyn, Pretoria Capitals captain: It's nice to win. To be honest, we wanted to keep them (Paarl Royals) out of the semis and play the team that gave us a hiding the other day just to fix that (Durban Super Giants), but yeah, happy to be in the semi-final. We played today to win and take that momentum into tomorrow, Playing the same opposition in different conditions tomorrow, we look forward to it. These playoff games are something different,  hopefully something special for the individuals, what we've done throughout the competition is play as a unit, and players knowing their roles. Mendis has been playing superbly since he started, he has big shoes to fill, hopefully, tomorrow will be a big day for him,

Kusal Mendis, Player Of The Match: Very happy to contribute, me and Salt started well in the first 6 overs, I think we batted really well. Everyone looked into scoring runs, that's why we were able to put up 220. The team is gelling very much together, we know how each other play, and are looking forward to tomorrow's game. 

David Miller (Paarl Royals captain): Yea definitely, I mentioned in the toss that we want to win the game. We got ourselves into a sticky situation, we have qualified which is very important. Look I think they batted very well but there were areas where we bowled pretty poorly. We have to try and rectify the mistakes and have a talk tomorrow. Jos Buttler batted phenomenally, he showed great class to put us over the line. We have to put up a big performance tomorrow. It’s different conditions, wasn’t an ideal game today but we know it’s a different game and come out fresh tomorrow.

Match summary:
Paarl Royals won the toss and opted to bowl

Pretoria Capitals 1st innings 226/5 (20 Overs)
Kusal Mendis 80(41) | Lungi Ngidi 2/39 (4)

Paarl Royals 2nd innings 167/9 (20 Overs)
Jos Buttler 70(45) | James Neesham 3/28 (2)

Pretoria Capitals win by 59 runs

Both these teams will go up against each other in the semi-finals at the Wanderers tomorrow. While the Paarl Royals were handed a heavy defeat tonight, the result won't deter them at all, they have their positives to take from the game! 

It was all about those 163 runs all along the run-chase. Jason Roy and Paul Stirling got the Royals to an identical start as the first innings, but the intensity fell off soon after when Stirling holed out to Muthusamy after a splendid second over from Eathan Bosch. Anrich Nortje accounted for Roy next over itself, and with the South African tearaway pacer on song, the game took a rather different route altogether. Perhaps that was when the focus shifted from the actual target today to the one needed for the greater good for the Royals.

Jos Buttler, instead of being the usual fast-blast self, decided to bring out the anchorman in himself on a wicket that suddenly started to do things. He needed a reliable partner at the other end to keep the score moving, and he found two in Eoin Morgan and David Miller. Despite not being able to time the ball well, Morgan somehow managed to strike at 200 in his 12 deliveries, ultimately holing out against Rashid. Miller departed at the same region after he and Buttler steadied things for a bit, and from thereon, it was completely down to the England white-ball captain to take the Royals to safety.

Buttler took the game deep, brought it down to 24 off the final two, before tearing into James Neesham. The Kiwi all-rounder came from round the wicket, but the angle and the length he offered to Buttler was to the Royals' keeper's liking. 14 runs came off the first three before Neesham changed angle, dug one in short, and accounted for Buttler. But by then, the target was down to a run-a-ball, and a boundary from Bjorn Fortuin took it to 5 off the final over. Salt was unable to pick Rashid, conceded his first byes of the tournament, and the Royals were through. Stay tuned, the presentations are coming up shortly!

The Durban Super Giants are out! The Paarl Royals, despite all the slip-ups that they had towards the latter stages of the tournament, will be among the big 4, the top 4 to compete for that trophy! What a tournament we've had, it took 29 matches and 39.2 overs to determine the semi-finalists!

19.6 Adil Rashid to Lungi Ngidi, tossed up delivery well outside off, Ngidi swings across the line and gets beaten. That's the end of the match. 

19.4 Adil Rashid to Lungi Ngidi, a wrong un angling down the leg side, Ngidi gets some pad on that and gets it away down towards deep fine leg for a couple leg byes. 

19.3 Adil Rashid to Bjorn Fortuin, WICKET! Codi Yusuf knew that the target has been achieved and goes for the reverse sweep. Tossed up delivery on the stumps and misses the attempted reverse sweep and the  ball clatters onto the middle stump.

Bjorn Fortuin b Adil Rashid 2 (3b 0x4 0x6)

The Durban Super Giants might not think too kindly of Salt at the moment! The Paarl Royals supporters have gone absolutely ecstatic, it took them until the last 5 balls of their league stage to know whether they'd make it through, and now, they are through!

19.2 Adil Rashid to Bjorn Fortuin, FOUR byes! The Paarl Royals goes through to the semi-finals. A beautiful wrong un that turns in sharply and beats the keeper and off to the fence. 

5 runs, 6 balls, 2 wickets left in the league stage. One spot still left to occupy. The Paarl Royals supporters are cock-a-hoop after the end of the penultimate over, they feel they have the semi finals in the bag!