Pretorius, Baartman star as Paarl survive late scare to keep MICT winless

Defending SA20 champions MI Cape Town failed to complete the tournament's highest successful chase in their two home games and have also stumbled attempting to hunt down the biggest target in Paarl. They remain winless after four games and lost a thriller at Boland Park, where they were defeated by one run to remain at the bottom of the table.

Victory was sweet for their noisy neighbours, Paarl Royals, who started well and scored briskly to reach 181, their highest score at this venue, and then defended it fiercely on a slow pitch. Most pleasing for Paarl will be the return to form of their young opener Lhuan-dre Pretorius, whose T20 career-best 98 anchored their innings and the way their bowlers stuck to the task.

A target of 160-plus had only been successfully chased in the SA20 at Boland Park once before, but MICT were off to a good start. They were 109 for 1 after 12 overs before Ottneil Baartman and Sikandar Raza sparked a massive collapse.

MICT lost five wickets for nine runs in 18 balls and the cat-and-mouse game began. MICT needed 50 runs from the last four overs, 30 from the last two and 15 off the last one, thanks to a 51-run partnership from George Linde and Rashid Khan for the seventh-wicket. Baartman broke the stand in the final over and picked up the wicket of Kagiso Rabada to finish with 4 for 51. In the process, Baartman also became the second bowler, after Marco Jansen, to reach 50 SA20 wickets.

The last time Paarl played at home, they were bowled out for 49, but they shelved those memories and more than doubled that score in the first half of their innings today. Pretorius and Asa Tribe combined to put the much-vaunted MICT attack to the sword. They took 13 runs off Rabada's first over and 16 off each of Dane Piedt and Rashid's opening overs with an array of boundaries in the V.

Tribe was particularly good at attacking short balls and Pretorius' use of his feet, especially against Rabada. The pair put on Paarl's third-highest opening stand in SA20 history before Tribe was caught on the deep mid-wicket boundary off Rashid. Pretorius went on to register his ninth fifty in T20s and seemed set to double up.

On a track that is known to slow down, Paarl were kept quiet for the five overs between 10 and 15 and managed just 30 runs despite the presence of their big-hitting captain, David Miller. In the 16th over, Pretorius slog swept Linde for six to enter the 60s, but two more quiet overs and the departure of Raza followed.

Paarl and Pretorius worked their way to their last over on 166 for 3 and 84 respectively. Rabada would deliver the last six balls. He started with a slower ball that Pretorius edged wide of Ryan Rickelton for four. Then he bowled a wide. Pretorius dragged the next delivery from outside off over the leg side to enter the 90s. His partner, Delano Potgieter, ran hard for him as they took three twos of the next three balls, leaving Pretorius on 98 with one to face. Rabada's death bowling outsmarted the 19-year-old batter, and he finished with a wide yorker that Pretorius could not make contact with.

Rickelton was the subject of much discussion after his T20 World Cup exclusion and began making his case with 30 runs from the first 15 balls he faced. Rassie van der Dussen, on 15 off 16 in the same time, only had an outside chance of making the national squad but served up a reminder of what he can do in a stunning takedown of Paarl's premier seamer, Baartman, who was also left of the T20 World Cup playing group.

In the final over of the powerplay, van der Dussen sent Baartman out of the ground, then over square and then over extra cover for three sixes in four balls and took his score to 33 off 21 deliveries. MICT ended the powerplay on 64 without loss and van der Dussen went on to make 59 off 42 balls.

The biggest surprise in South Africa's T20 World Cup squad, which was named earlier on Friday, was Jason Smith, amid many questions. Smith has only played two T20Is, was the 19th highest run-scorer in the T20 competition but has a reputation as a big-hitter. He wasn't able to show that in Paarl. He pushed the first ball he faced from Baartman a single and then missed a cross seam delivery that he tried to whip over mid-wicket. He was struck in front of the middle and leg and wanted to review but Nicholas Pooran convinced him not to, and rightly so. Smith was out for 1 and will know all eyes will be on him as the tournament progresses. Smith was the second wicket in that Baartman over and the second in a spectacular MI collapse of five wickets for nine runs.