Paarl Royals jump to the top with third victory at fortress Boland Park

Paarl Royalsrsquo spinners continue to dominate at their Boland Park fortress to propel team to the top of the Betway SA20 standingsThe Royals quartet of Bjorn Fortuin Mujeeb Ur Rahman Joe Root and Dunith Wellalage spun a web around the Joburg Super Kings batting unit to restrict the visitors to 1466Fortuin 222 started the JSK slide with two wickets in the Powerplay that set the tone for Mujeeb 128 and the rest to followldquoVery delighted nice to get over the line It was one of the wickets where we went with the spin and it worked out I had too many options at one point which was greatrdquo Royals captain David Miller saidldquoWe had them by the throat but the last two overs let us down but that is the nature of the game I thought it was a par scorerdquoIt would have been a lot less were it not for Englandrsquos double World Cup winner Jonny Bairstow 60 off 40 balls 2x4 3x6 and Donovan Ferreirarsquos unbeaten 32 off 19 balls that saw the Super Kings add 65 runs in the last five oversAlso ReadChampions Trophy 2025 No Virat no Rohit Kamran Akmal names the player without whom India is incompleteldquoI thought we had a competitive score after they took wickets early on with their bowlers put us on the back foot and fair play to themrdquo Bairstow saidldquoIf you go a bit too early then you might be 56 down early but if you are brave enough to keep wickets in the back end to exploit the shorter side then you get rewards at the end If yoursquore brave enough to take it to the end and having myself and Don with a bit of firepower to exploit the shorter side was great but maybe 1520 shortrdquoBut even after the Super Kingsrsquo late onslaught the Royals still had little trouble in completing a comfortable runchase as the home team strolled home with six wickets intact It was the Royalsrsquo third win in successionThe competitionrsquos leading runscorer Lhuandre Pretorius certainly enjoys batting at his new home ground with the teenage opener adding another breezy 27 off 14 balls 4x4 1x6 to his two halfcenturies at this picturesque venueldquoThe guys at the top batted really well and got us off to a good start which got us ahead of the gamerdquo Miller addedThere was a slight hiccup when seamer Hardus Viljoen 223 removed both Pretorius and Joe Root in quick succession but the Royals were always in control of the run chaseMiller has performed his finisher role to perfection this season and partnered up with Mitchell van Buuren 44 off 45 balls for a 71run partnership for the fourth wicketMiller completed the job in fine style by smashing Lutho Sipamla for a massive maximum that has placed the Royals in prime position to secure a playoff spotldquoWersquove got an adaptable squad and we play according to the condition and the last two years we started really well and finished badly and that is something we keep in mind and we have all bases covered for nowrdquo he saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever