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MI Cape Town carried their fine run of form into the Playoffs, beating Paarl Royals by 39 runs in Qualifier 1 at St George’s Park here on Tuesday to storm into their maiden Betway SA20 final.
The game also ended up being special for MICT skipper Rashid Khan, who became the highest wicket-taker in the T20 format when he surpassed West Indian Dwayne Bravo and accounted for his 632nd scalp in the shortest version.
After being put in to bat, openers Ryan Rickleton and Rassie van der Dussen gave MICT the perfect start, scoring 44 (off 27 balls, 4×4, 2×6) and 40 (off 32 balls, 3×4, 2×6) respectively, accumulating an impressive 66 runs in the Powerplay en route. This was followed by some lusty hitting by No. 3 Dewald Brevis (44 not out of 30, 4×6) along with middle-order batters George Linde (26 off 14, 3×6) and Delano Potgieter (32 off 17, 1×4, 1×6) as the PR bowlers were sent on a leather hunt across all corners of the picturesque ground. Linde’s back-to-back sixes off left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin in the 15th over were special. He first pulled the second delivery of the over across mid-wicket for a flat six and then followed it up with an even bigger blow a long way over deep mid-wicket much to the cheers of the awe-struck and enthusiastic crowd. That Fortuin dismissed him off the last ball of the same over hardly mattered because Potgieter and Brewis carried on the big-hitting thereafter.
Despite the carnage all around though, PR’s international spin twins — Dunith Wellalage (2-23) of Sri Lanka and Afghanistan’s Mujeeb Ur Rahman (0-25) — did well to hold their own else the target could well have neared the 250-mark.
In response, PR’s mercurial opener Lhuan-dre Pretorius exploded like a soda bottle. He hammered MICT’s veteran pacer Trent Boult for two fours and a splendid six off the first three balls of the chase. He and opening partner Mitchell Owen picked up 21 runs off the first over before Boult’s pace partner Kagiso Rabada got Pretorius to chase a wide delivery, only to edge it to wicketkeeper Rickletton, who completed a brilliant diving catch.
The PR batting line-up thereafter hardly looked threatening despite skipper David Miller adding 45 off 26 (4×4, 3×6) and veteran Dinesh Karthik contributing 31 off 28 (5×4). Losing wickets at regular intervals, PR’s innings folded at 160 with two balls to spare. Rashid Khan disrupting Wellalage’s furniture en route to stamp his greatness on the T20 format was the cherry on top. Ends
Brief Scores
Mumbai Indians Cape Town 199/4 off 20 overs (Ryan Rickleton 44, D Brewis 44 not out, R van der Dussen 40; D Wellalage 2-23) beat Paarl Royals 160 all out off 19.4 overs (D Miller 45; K Rabada 2-16) by 39 runs
Top 5 wicket-takers in T20s
1) Rashid Khan 632
2) Dwayne Bravo 631
3) Sunil Narine 574
4) Imran Tahir 531
5) Shakib al Hasan 492
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