Johannesburg — David Miller’s big-hitting is renowned the world over. And for the second consecutive Betway SA20 encounter the Paarl Royals skipper delivered at the crunch moment to haul his team over the line.
Miller clubbed 37 not out off just 23 balls as the Royals chased down the Sunrisers Eastern Cape’s 130/5 with seven balls and five wickets to spare.
The powerful southpaw was particularly severe on his Proteas teammate Sisanda Magala in the 18th over. The match was evenly balanced with the Royals requiring 30 runs off the final 18 balls.
It was at this stage that Miller moved through the gears and exploded with three sixes in the over.
The first was a trademark straight drive down the ground and over the sightscreen. Magala opted to go wider of the off stump with his next delivery, but all it allowed Miller to do was throw his hands through the ball and it flew over the extra cover boundary.
Two runs followed before Magala opted for another straight delivery at the stumps. Unfortunately, he missed his mark and Miller cleared his front leg to drill the ball over the mid-wicket boundary.
The carnage was not done yet with Miller taking a single off the fifth ball before Dane Vilas helped himself to a boundary off the final delivery. Magala conceded 25 runs and the match was over as a contest.
The Royals will certainly take great pleasure from getting over the line in a match that had plenty of twists and turns on a sluggish St George’s Park pitch.
Prior to Miller’s pyrotechnics show they were reliant on the skill of Jos Buttler. The England captain has shown his versatility throughout the Betway SA20 by adjusting to the slower pitches at Boland Park and now at St George’s Park.
The tournament’s leading run-scorer struck his third half-century of the season as his 51 kept the visitors innings together. It was much needed due to Roelof van der Merwe once again delivering a fine spell of left-arm spin bowling.
Van der Merwe is the leading wicket-taker in the tournament, and fresh off his six-for in the previous match, claimed match figures of 2/11 from his four overs.
The Royals also owe a great deal to their two Proteas Lungi Ngidi and Andile Phehlukwayo too. Phehlukwayo (2/26) was excellent in his first SA20 outing, while Ngidi (1/21) simply continued his recent good form.
Evan Jones’ ability to take important wickets also came to the fore with the all-rounder adding another 2/27 to his bulging tournament tally.
This disciplined bowling performance restricted the Sunrisers Eastern Cape, despite Jon Jon Smuts striking 65 off just 49 balls to give his team some hope.
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