<\/p>\n
Paarl Royals<\/b> 90 for 3 (Tribe 34, Miller 19*, Bosch 1-9) beat MI Cape Town<\/b> 88 (Hendricks 18, Raza 4-13, Baartman 2-8, Mokoena 2-10) by seven wickets<\/i><\/p>\n
MI Cape Town (MICT)<\/a> suffered a significant blow to their SA20 title defence as they slumped to a fourth defeat in five games – their third at home, and second to Paarl Royals (PR)<\/a> in this edition of the tournament. And those are not the worst of the statistics. Against PR, MICT were bowled out for 88 – their lowest score<\/a> batting first in SA20’s short history, and the lowest score batting first at Newlands<\/a> in a full 20-over game across the four editions of the competition.<\/p>\n With half their fixtures played, MICT remain at the bottom of the points table, and will need to start winning – and potentially a few favours from other results – to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n PR, meanwhile, have recovered well from a massive loss in the tournament opener to move up to second on the log with a third successive win. They also did their net run rate a huge favour by chasing down the target of 89 in 13 overs to earn a bonus point.<\/p>\n Everything went right for PR after MICT chose to bat at what had been a high-scoring ground before Sunday. PR’s crafty attack proved difficult to get away, and also dangerous, as Sikandar Raza<\/a>, playing a competitive match for the first time at Newlands, picked 4 for 13, while Ottneil Baartman<\/a> got 2 for 8 in 2.4 overs. PR lost three wickets in pursuit of 89, but eventually got there comfortably as David Miller sealed the win with a six.<\/p>\nPR control powerplay – with ball<\/h2>\n