It was a fight until the end, where despite it getting easy for batting, the MI Cape Town bowlers kept fighting it out. But sadly, it wasn’t our best day on the field and with the bat too, the explosiveness came a touch late. It ended in the Paarl Royals getting back in this return fixture in their backyard with a six-wicket win. Let’s look back. 

Sadly, a dropped catch proves costly

It was pretty close, I felt we dropped a few catches early on and that didn't let us back in the game. We were right there but fell short,” said skipper Rashid Khan in the post-match interview. In the first over of the match, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, was dropped by Dewald Brevis, and ended up eventually scoring a 52-ball match-winning 83.

Spin strangles it for the Royals 

Boland Park has historically been a ground that’s aided spin. The Royals used 15 overs of it, including three from Joe Root, and our batters found it tough to go after them. Unfortunately by the time our bowlers got a bowl, the dew came down and the pitch wasn’t gripping as much. 

Rassie’s fighting bat-through-the-innings 91

It was the senior pro who dropped anchor and batted through the innings. On a pitch where run-scoring wasn’t the easiest, he paced his innings beautifully, with five fours and five sixes. Alas, the 158/4 that MI Cape Town got to at the end, wasn’t to be enough.