With six wins and one loss in their last seven games, the Paarl Royals are now leading the SA20 league stage, which is coming to an end.
In their latest game, the squad captained by David Miller defeated the Pretoria Capitals by 11 runs and successfully held off a below-average total of 140 to win five games in a row and keep their dominance. English batsman Joe Root was the game’s most impressive player. He was undefeated at 78 in the first innings and took a couple wickets with the ball in the second.
The Paarl Royals’ incredible feat wasn’t their only accomplishment, though; after this game, they also created history.
It was already unexpected that Dayyaan Galiem was the only recognized pacer given that they came into this match with four specialized spinners: Dutth Wellalage, Bjorn Fortuin, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, and Nqabayomzi Peter. Although Galiem was never used during the match, Root’s part-time spin was preferred. Spinners bowled all 20 overs in an innings for the first time in a Twenty20 game.
Two adolescent Sri Lankan celebrities, Fortuin and Dunith Wellalage, split the new ball and ended with incredible performances. Fortuin finished with 2/20 in his four overs, while Wellalage finished with 1/16. Mujeeb, the mystery spinner from Afghanistan, was also frugal, scoring 2/17 in his four overs. In the end, Peter and Root made sure the Capitals couldn’t get away in the last overs.
The Royals will want to get closer to winning the trophy in the third tournament edition given their play this season. They made it to the playoffs the previous two seasons but lost all of their elimination matches.
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