De Kock and Bairstow raced to 51 from the first five overs and shared a first-wicket stand of 66. They were relatively untroubled before some David Miller brilliance separated them. Bairstow tried to hit Ottneil Baartman over mid-off but chipped the ball to the left of Miller, who took a diving catch to give Royals their first wicket.
In an XI that includes Breetzke and Tristan Stubbs, SEC opted to promote Marco Jansen to No.3 but the plan didn’t work. Jansen scored four off the first nine balls he faced before he timed a cover drive off Bjorn Fortuin to get going.
Fortuin then delivered the ball as slowly as he could, Jansen was through his slog sweep almost before the ball had even reached him. He could do nothing as it spun away and bowled him. This was the first time Jansen had batted at No.3 in T20 cricket. SEC went from 66 without loss to 89 for 3 in 21 deliveries.
Breetzke and Hermann take down Baartman and finish strong
With four overs left to go, SEC were looking for a big finish and it was up to Breetzke and Hermann to provide it. Royals turned to former SEC superstar Baartman and he started with a short ball that Breetzke latched onto immediately to start the 17th over with a four. Baartman adjusted to fuller lengths once Hermann was on strike and he went over extra cover for four. Baartman went short again and Hermann pulled over square leg for the fifth six of the innings.
That was the over that got Breetzke and Hermann going as their partnership grew to 73 off 41 balls. Baartman had the last laugh when he bowled Breetzke with his penultimate ball to dismiss him for the fifth time in 13 innings. Hermann continued on regardless and brought up a 26-ball fifty. SEC scored 57 in their last four overs.
Jansen strikes early; remains tournaments most successful bowler
Jansen is the most successful bowler in the SA20 tournament history, and it took him only three balls to make an impression on this edition. He pitched the ball up and found Lhuan-dre Pretorius’ inside edge.
Nortje’s puts his name in lights
Nortje was brought on in the last over of the Powerplay and had an enterprising Tribe caught off a top edge as he tried to pull a cross seam delivery. Nortje was brought back on in the 11th over and bowled Delano Potgieter with a brutish ball, full and shaping away to destroy the stumps.
In the same over, Fortuin was rushed by another short ball and caught by de Kock behind the stumps. Then Nortje iced the cake when he bounced Mujeeb Ur Rahman, who fended the ball to de Kock. With three wickets in his third over Nortje left Paarl Royals 48 for 8. Five balls later, their opening game was done, with 49 balls remaining in the innings.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.espncricinfo.com ’
