Dominant Royals cruise to a comfortable win

Paarl Royals strengthened their position at the top of the points table with a comfortable five-wicket victory over bottom-placed Durban Super Giants in Durban on Thursday. After keeping the home side to just 142 in their allotted 20, Royals marched to the victory in just 17.3 overs courtesy of contributions in the 40s from Rubin Hermann and Mitchell Van Buuren.

Quinton de Kock provided a perfect start and, alongside his opening partner Matthew Breetzke, put on 50 in the powerplay alone. De Kock was the aggressor, hitting three sixes and as many boundaries in his 30-ball 43 but DSG lost both its set openers in quick succession with the very economical Bjorn Fortuin providing the breakthrough.

In the middle overs, the spinners took over and Durban's middle-order felt the heat in their attempt to rebuild. Joe Root got Kane Williamson and Mujeeb sent back Heinrich Klaasen cheaply to reduce the home side to 81/4 in the 13th over. Wiaan Mulder (24 off 27) and JJ Smuts (32 off 22) managed to arrest the slide with a 59-run partnership for the fifth wicket but the prior collapse meant they finished with yet another underwhelming total of 142/7.

Despite losing Root in the first over and the explosive Lhuan-dre Pretorius after a 13-ball cameo worth 25 in the fourth, Paarl finished the powerplay with a massive 70/2 and were already ahead on the asking rate thanks to Hermann. He was the aggressor in his partnership with van Buuren. slamming three maximums and four more boundaries in his 22-ball knock of 44 before being the third dismissed.

Van Buuren, who chipped in a solid run-a-ball 41, then found company in skipper David Miller and the pair added 59 runs for the fourth wicket. The former became the second Paarl batter to miss out on a half-century when his side was only seven runs away, and Miller was run out in the following over in Dinesh Karthik's call for a tight single. However, the former Indian 'keeper struck a boundary to wrap things up in style.

Brief scores: Durban Super Giants 142/7 in 20 overs (Quinton de Kock 43, JJ Smuts 32; Mujeeb-ur-Rahman 2-23) lost to Paarl Royals 146/5 in 17.3 overs (Rubin Hermann 44, Mitchell Van Buuren 41; Junior Dala 2-38) by 5 wickets