Miller's sixes turn tables to lift Royals off the bottom

Paarl Royals' death bowlers combined to squeeze the momentum out of Sunrisers Eastern Cape's batting effort, before a David Miller masterclass rescued Royals from the depths of 35 for 4, and sent them to their target of 150 with two balls to spare.

Miller's 71 not out off 38 was so domineering a performance, that even the innings of Keagan Lion-Cachet, who joined Miller in a 114-run fifth-wicket stand, paled in comparison. Lion-Cachet was out for 45 off 40, with the scores tied and two balls left in the game. A wide down the leg side from Lewis Gregory sent Royals over the line.

When these two teams met on Saturday, Sunrisers had decked Royals for 49, and stormed to victory. This win not only puts Royals on the points table, it is also Sunrisers' first loss of the season so far.

In order for the target to be manageable for a batting order short of confidence, the death bowlers had to put in a serious shift. Sunrisers were 127 for 4 with four overs to go, with their top-scorer Jordan Hermann at the crease. But between Ottneil Baartman, Nqobani Mokoena and Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Royals conceded just 22 runs off the last 24 balls, the team taking all six remaining wickets during this stretch.

Mokoena bowled hard into the pitch, and switched up his pace, to claim the richest rewards - a career-best 4 for 34 in his eighth senior T20. Baartman bowled two of the last four overs and gave away only a single boundary. He finished with 3 for 36. Mujeeb finished with 1 for 30.

Pretty much every batter who came to the crease found hitting the ball cleanly a challenge, with plenty of tackiness on this Gqeberha track. Miller's innings was incredibly fluent in comparison, punishing a loose delivery from Anrich Nortje first ball, before launching Tharindu Ratnayake's offspin over the deep extra cover boundary next over. Ratnayake would become his major victim of the afternoon, as Miller crashed 29 runs off his bowling alone.

Right through the innings, Miller found the boundary with ease, never letting the required rate climb too far above 10, even when digging his team out of substantial early trouble. He hit five sixes and four fours in all.

The hosts' best stretch of the game was the first seven overs of the chase, in which Royals scored at no faster than five and over, and lost four wickets. The dismissals came in sets of two. In the fourth over, Marco Jansen's extra bounce led to Asa Tribe chipping one to mid-off, before Lhuan-dre Pretorius tickled a bouncer down the leg side and was caught spectacularly by a diving Quinton de Kock, holding the chance in an outstretched right glove.

The next double-strike was down to Nortje's exceptional bowling. He first had Kyle Verreyne dragging on, before a ripsnorting short delivery outside off was too hot for Rubin Hermann, who could only nick it to de Kock.