Youth and experience combined in perfect harmony for Paarl Royals to send Joburg Super Kings crashing out in the Betway SA20 Eliminator at rousing Centurion on Thursday evening.
Teenager Lhuan-dre Pretorius starred with the bat with last season’s leading run-scorer coming to the fore when it mattered most as the Royals defeated JSK by 36 runs.
The powerful left-hander put a disappointing second season behind him with 34-ball 51 that formed the bedrock of Royals’ imposing 210/5.
The rest of the Royals batters all chipped in from opener Kyle Verreynne (30 off 15 balls) through to Dan Lawrence (36 off 23 balls), Sikandar Raza (35 off 19 balls) and Asa Tribe (30 not out off 16 balls).
Joburg Super Kings run-chase never left the starting blocks with
36-year-old fast bowler Hardus Viljoen turning back the clock to send down a rasping opening spell.
Viljoen (3/24) hurried up all the JSK batters with his pace to send Neil Timmers and Matthew de Villiers back to the pavilion within the Powerplay.
JSK certainly missed the experience of their injured captain Faf du Plessis and Rilee Rossouw during this period as left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin and the competition’s leading wicket-taker Ottneil Baartman also chipped in with a wicket apiece to reduce Super Kings to 40/4.
Stand-in captain James Vince and Wiaan Mulder attempted to rebuild JSK’s innings with a 58-run partnership for the fifth wicket.
It was brought to a close by another impressive Royals teenager Nqobani Mokoena, who outsmarted Vince with an excellent slower ball to clean bowl the Englishman.
The four Player of the Match candidates were Bjorn Fortuin, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Asa Tribe and Hardus Viljoen with the left-handed opener winning 53% of the fan vote.
Mulder (41 off 27 balls) attempted to keep the dwindling JSK flame flickering, but he too was outdone by the brilliance of Baartman than ended all hopes.
The Royals now travel down the NI1 South to the Wanderers to face Sunrisers Eastern Cape on Friday evening in Qualifier 2.
The winner will have the prized opportunity to head down to Cape Town to face Pretoria Capitals in Sunday’s grand Final at Newlands.
