Rutherford blitz, Maharaj two-for help Capitals win low-scorer

Pretoria Capitals have defended the lowest SA20 total at Boland Park - 138 - and join Paarl Royals mid-table on 15 points, after a hard-fought, low-scoring affair.

On a dry, slow surface that is characteristic of this venue, PR would have thought they'd done the job with the ball when they had PC 74 for 6 in the 12th over. Sherfane Rutherford's 35-ball 42 dragged them to 138, which proved enough, thanks to their strangling attack.

Roston Chase and Keshav Maharaj conceded at under four runs an over, while Maharaj also picked up two wickets. Chase's five overs gave away only 15 runs and PC's bowlers were on top of PR early. There was off-field drama when a parking-lot fire broke out, beyond Boland Park, during the fourth over of the chase.

The fire was put out by the seventh over, with no damage reported. By the eighth, PC had reduced PR to 38 for 3. They were 95 for 5 in the 17th, and David Miller's 45 off 36 balls was not enough to win them the match, or see PR go top of the table. PC are now ahead of PR on net run-rate.

Dan Lawrence is fresh off the ILT20, where he only took two wickets in 12 matches. He matched that count in four balls for the Paarl Royals. Brought on in the eighth over, with PC 51 for 2, Lawrence had Wihan Lubbe caught at deep cover, reverse-sweeping his first ball.

Three deliveries later, Shai Hope, who had been waiting for an opportunity to hit out, took on a tossed-up Lawrence ball but could only get it as far as Rubin Hermann at long-off. PC were 53 for 4 and at the start of a dramatic collapse, from which they struggled to recover.

The SA20's highest-paid player, Dewald Brevis - who was bought for R16.5 million (approx US$980,000) at the auction by PC - has yet to earn his worth with a top score of 36* from seven innings so far. He is sitting 26th on the run-charts. While he has been susceptible to short balls, especially on the Highveld, Brevis was done in by a Raza yorker on this occasion, which held its line as he played for turn, and bowled.

He was Raza's second wicket, after the Zimbabwe captain pulled off a fantastic caught and bowled to dismiss Chase. The Brevis wicket put Raza joint-top of the wicket-table with team-mate Ottneil Baartman. Raza has played four of PR's six games, after missing the first two at the ILT20, taking his wickets at an average of 7.18 and an economy of 4.93.

A hat-trick in the previous match has got Lungi Ngidi back to wicket-taking ways, and he picked up from where he left off when he dismissed Lhuan-dre Pretorius with his second ball. Ngidi found early movement and got the ball to move back into Pretorius, beat his drive, and hit his pad.

He was not given out on-field but Maharaj wasted no time in reviewing. Pretorius began walking as the first replays showed the ball pitching on middle and leg, and was almost off the field by the time ball-tracking confirmed the delivery was crashing into his middle stump.

Reputed for having some of the best finishing skills in the game, it was up to Miller to make some magic happen, especially with the required run-rate climbing. PR needed 60 off 30 balls. He had only scored four runs off the first four balls of the 16th over, and needed to get going.

He picked up Ngidi's slower ball and hit it over long-on, and then sent the next one over deep square leg, to keep PR in the game. However, what he didn't have was support at the other end. Raza was dismissed off the first ball of the next over, and Delano Potgieter could get nothing away against a tight PC attack.

Potgieter scored two off eight balls and struggled to get Ngidi away, which left Miller with too much to do. PR ended up needing 35 runs off 12 balls, then 30 off the last over, which Ngidi and Lizaad Williams easily defended.