The home team won the toss and batted first on an absolute belter of a pitch, compiling the highest total in the competition to date – 216 for four – thanks to destructive half-centuries by player of the match Heinrich Klaasen and Quinton de Kock.
In reply, the Royals gave the Super Giants an almighty scare when Eoin Morgan (64 in 37 balls) and Dane Vilas (44 in 30 balls) hauled their team out of trouble and into the strike zone with the biggest partnership of the match – and the competition to date – 114 in 69 balls for the fifth wicket.
But when Morgan was brilliantly run out by Simon Harmer/Wiaan Mulder, the threat of an unlikely win dissipated and eventually, the home team ran out comfortable winners. Still, the fact that 405 runs were plundered in the match was something the home crowd of 10 469 could celebrate.
Altogether, 21 sixes were belted in the match, taking the total number well past 100 in the competition to date.
One of the main talking points will be the brilliant job done by groundsman Wilson Ngobese who produced a pitch to give bowlers nightmares. Even the home team misjudged the surface. They picked three spinners, Keshav Maharaj, Prenelan Subrayen and Simon Harmer. As it turned out, Harmer didn’t get a bowl, while Maharaj and Subrayen bowled three between them.
Aside from the Morgan/Vilas show, Durban-born Jason Roy showed flashes of his World Cup form with a typically aggressive 33 in 23 balls (4x4s, 1×6). David Miller, however, disappointed, holing out to Jason Holder at long-on for a single in a Dwaine Pretorius over in which the medium-pacer also snared Wihan Lubbe in the same manner. The always dangerous Jos Buttler also went early, bowled by paceman Reece Topley who was one of the few bowlers to return a good analysis, 3-34 in his four overs.
Morgan started slowly but soon rolled back the years with some typically adventurous strokeplay, striking five sixes and a four. Vilas was relatively quiet by comparison but played a full part in the partnership with his 44 in 30 balls (3x4s, 2x6s).
The crunch came for the Royals when Morgan was run out, with a total of three wickets falling for a single, courtesy of two fine catches in the deep from substitute fielder Junior Dala.
Earlier, in a sign of things to come, Super Giants’ opener Karl Mayers effortlessly dispatched Imraan Manack’s first two short-pitched deliveries of the match for four through the covers to whet the crowd’s appetite.
Skipper Buttler gave four bowlers one-over spells to start the innings, but the Super Giants powered ahead with 18 coming off Ferisco Adams’s first offering. Lungi Ngidi, playing his 100th T20 game, was unfortunate not to celebrate it in his first over with a wicket when Mayers was dropped at third man by Adams who seemed to see the ball late.
Mayers didn’t quite make it to the slightly calmer waters of the second power play, top-edging a hook off paceman Evan Jones to Buttler. The Barbadian struck six fours and a six in his 39 off 23 balls as the opening stand realised 62 off a frisky 36 balls.
The pace increased when De Kock – having shifted himself down to three – entered the arena. The left-hander, who entertained the locals with a scintillating 78 in 52 balls in a losing cause against the Joburg Super Kings earlier in the week, was in equally fluent form, sweeping, reverse-sweeping and slog-sweeping on his merry way as he added 85 in 53 balls with Wiaan Mulder who had little choice but to play a supporting role.
De Kock’s – and the crowd’s – fun was epitomised by one cover drive for six with one hand but the festive fare had to end, and it was Ngidi who did the trick, inducing an edged drive that looped to short-third man where Evan Jones clung onto a fine diving catch. De Kock’s 57 came in just 31 balls and included five fours and four sixes.
It didn’t seem that effort could be trumped but Klaasen managed the feat, smacking four sixes off the final over delivered by the unfortunate Adams. His last blow, a howitzer over long-on, brought up his 50 that included a four and six sixes.
The two Paarl bowlers who could look back on their efforts with some satisfaction were Ngidi and Evans who both picked up 2-33 in their four overs. The others had a hard time of it.
DURBAN’S SUPER GIANTS :Quinton de Kock (capt, wk), Kyle Mayers, Wiaan Mulder, Heinrich Klaasen, Jason Holder, Dwaine Pretorius, Keamo Paul, Reece Topley, Keshav Maharaj, Simon Harmer, Prenelan Subrayen
PAARL ROYALS : Jos Buttler (wk), Jason Roy, Wihan Lubbe, Dane Vilas, David Miller (capt), Eoin Morgan, Ferisco Adams, Evan Jones, Bjorn Fortuin, Imraan Manack, Lungi Ngidi.