The Paarl Royals may have come into this game undefeated in this year’s SA20, but they bumped into a rampaging MI Cape Town, who’ve broken their streak in style. And with the same swagger, MI CT have jumped to third spot on the points table, with nine points. What this also means is that we remain unbeaten against the Royals in the SA20, having won both games against them in the 2023 season as well. Let’s relive what happened. 

The openers at it, again! 

80 runs in eight overs. They say consistency is a rare feat in T20s, but the MI Cape Town openers, in these four games, have managed truckloads of it. Safe to say, that’s where the game was sealed, the chase was killed. 

Ryan Rickelton, 94* | 52 balls | 7 fours | 6 sixes 

He may have ridden his luck with two dropped lives, but this 27-year-old is in the middle of the purple patch of his life. Today, he was just unstoppable. In an innings where he kept swinging for the hills, he kept finding them. After Rassie fell, he just switched gears, smashed them some more, and finished the game off with 19 balls to spare. 

Skipper Kieron Pollard put it perfectly in the post-match interview, “He's a young guy trying to find his way. We are trying to give him a platform for him to succeed, and the sky is the limit for him.”

The wily ol’ Rabada ends the Buttler-Roy show

Paarl, in the first innings, were off to a serious flier. Jason Roy (38 off 14) and Jos Buttler (46 off 31) were taking everyone to the cleaners. In 4.2 overs, they’d touched 62/0, and just when it looked like things could get out of hand for us, Kagiso Rabada – having been smashed for two sixes off the first two balls in the over – slipped in a smart slower one in the form of a low full toss that Roy miscued to short fine leg. And there came the twist. 

Welcome to the party, Thomas Kaber 

David Miller, Andile Phehlukwayo, Fabian Allen. He added his name against theirs on the scorecard. Playing with the extra bounce that the Newlands surface had to offer, his googlies were just good for them to handle. In effect, he broke the Royals’ middle-order, and made sure they ended up with an under-par 172/8 in their 20 overs.