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ROYALS' RISING STARS AND MI CAPE TOWN'S EXPERIENCE SHINE FOR LIONS
It was an all Paarl Royals affair with the ball before the MI Cape Town’s experienced batting pair took centre stage for the Lions in their T20 Challenge Qualifier 1 victory over the Titans at the Wanderers on Tuesday evening.
The Royals will certainly be pleased with the early season form of their youthful duo Nqaba Peter and Kwena Maphaka heading into Betway SA20 Season 3 next year.
Peter, who dominated this competition last season which catapulted him to the next level with the Proteas, tore through the Titans batting lineup.
The leg-spinner claimed 4/15 and was ably supported by Maphaka’s left-arm pace with the teenager grabbing 3/11.
Kwena Maphaka claimed 3/11 with his left-arm pace.
It was only their new Royals teammate Dayyaan Galiem, who has been traded in to Boland Park from Joburg Super Kings for Season 3, showed any fight with the bat as the allrounder played a lone hand of 44 off 39 balls to get the Titans up to 115.
It was in complete contrast to the opening game of the competition when the Titans blew away the Lions with a mammoth 258/6.
The Lions were intent to exact revenge for that defeat with MI Cape Town’s experienced duo Reeza Hendricks and Rassie van der Dussen taking charge of the run chase.
Hendricks, who will head down to Newlands for Season 3 after being the most expensive buy at the recent auction, showed the MI Cape Town faithful what he will add to their squad with the classy right-hander striking a fluent 61 off 43 balls (7x4, 2x6).
Van der Dussen took on the mantle after Hendricks’ departure to finish off the run chase with an unbeaten 40 (37 balls, 4x4) to guide the Lions to a comfortable seven-wicket victory and a place in the T20 Challenge final.
Galiem was once again the sole battler with the ball for the Titans as he completed a solid all-round match with figures of 2/16.
“We couldn’t really have asked for anything better tonight,” Hendricks said. “The bowlers set the tone, restricting the Titans to a good score for us, and then we were clinical with the bat to finish things off. So we are happy with the performance and hopefully we can repeat it on Sunday.
“It was a really good game by us after we had a bit of a stumble against Western Province last week, and hopefully we are peaking at the right time again. It gives us a great deal of confidence to beat this strong Titans outfit, but whoever we play on Sunday is going to come out firing against us,” Hendricks said.
