Paarl Royals only spin when they're winning

Spin to win. For the first time in South Africa, in a T20 match, a team bowled 20 overs of spin, with the Paarl Royals perfectly assessing the conditions at Boland Park to secure an 11-run victory in the Betway SA20 against the Pretoria Capitals yesterday. 

The ploy both bamboozled and frustrated the hapless Capitals, who’ve won just once in this season’s competition. 

“You know, looking at their team, we were trying to find the seamers. We were, like, ‘where’s all the seamers?’” said Capitals skipper Rilee Rossouw, who added it was “something different”, and not something players in South Africa were accustomed to. 

But it is another positive element in this competition and the varying conditions that players are exposed to, and what that asks of them and the kind of strategies that need to be used to succeed at different venues.

Joe Root again displayed all his class and nous, playing crucial roles with both bat and ball for the home team. The former England captain has proved to be a nemesis for the Capitals.  He made an unbeaten 92 during last week’s “bat-a-thon” in Centurion, when the two teams shared a match aggregate of 425 runs on a perfect batting surface. 

The Boland Park pitch didn’t allow for similar free-flowing scoring, and Root read those conditions superbly. “We knew that 160 wasn’t going to be possible on that surface, so we just needed to adjust. Whatever is put in front of you, you have to play to the best of your ability,” said Root.

He produced a more workmanlike innings this time, scoring 78 not out in a total of just 140/4. The Royals will lose Root to international duties when he heads to India for an ODI series on Friday, and yesterday’s innings was another example of his supreme skill, ability to read a situation and employ a strategy suited to securing the best outcome for his team. 

He had a moment of good fortune when he was dropped on 13 by New Zealander Jimmy Neesham, who lost control of the ball as he motioned forward to complete what should have been a simple catch. 

Forging a partnership was critical for the Royals, and Root did so with Sri Lankan import Dunith Wellalage, sharing a 40-run stand off 44 balls for the fourth wicket. It wasn’t so much the runs that mattered as much as occupation of the crease, and absorbing the overs from the Capitals’ three spinners. 

The plan worked perfectly, and by the time David Miller arrived in the 15th over, Root was set to attack against the Capitals’ pace bowlers, who weren’t as effective on the surface. 

The Royals scored 58 runs off the last five overs, which given how the match unfolded proved crucial to the outcome. Root hit two fours and a pair of sixes in those last five overs, adding to the six fours he’d hit earlier in the innings, with Miller adding 29 not out off 27 balls.

“It’s tough playing here, but the guys have embraced it,” said Miller, who added that he’d never been involved in a game where one team bowled 20 overs of spin. But his five spinners performed their roles almost perfectly.

As has become the norm in Paarl, Bjorn Fortuin picked up two wickets in the power play and then Wellalage and Afghanistan’s Mujeeb ur Raham put the squeeze on through the middle overs.

Nqaba Peter, playing his first match in the tournament, battled with nerves but, importantly, bowled a couple of good leg breaks, a delivery that he needs to work on if he is going to improve at international level.

Although Dinesh Karthik battled behind the stumps, the Capitals just couldn’t get far enough ahead of the required run rate. Will Jacks was superb batting until the final over of the innings to score 58, but unlike the Royals, the Capitals couldn’t forge any partnerships.