Last Update: January 20, 2023, 11:00 AM IST
Sunrisers Eastern Cape have moved up to second in the SA 20 standings.
The Royals might pride themselves on their spin bowling prowess, but it was the visitors who outclassed the home team.
Paarl: Sunrisers Eastern Cape relied on their spin bowlers to beat Paarl Royals by five wickets at Boland Park to become the first team in the SA20 to claim a hat-trick of wins.
After a slow start to the competition, the Eastern Cape side have gathered momentum to move up to second place in the table.
The Royals might pride themselves on their spin bowling prowess, but it was the visitors who outclassed the home team. Captain Aiden Markram (2-21), Roelof van der Merwe (2-21) and Bryden Carse (2-29) combined to claim 6-71 from their total of 12 overs as the Royals were restricted to 127/7.
The Royals were in trouble from the start after Sisanda Magala, who was recently called up to the Proteas ODI squad for the upcoming series against England, was caught by Jos Buttler brilliantly diving Carse at mid-on.
From there the Sunrisers spinners ramped up the proceedings with only Vihaan Lubbe (28) and Corbin Bosch (20) making an impact on the scoreboard.
Sunrisers’ reply started on a positive note thanks to Adam Rossington and Jordan Harman. The latter was making his SA20 debut and made an impact with a 39-ball 43, while Rossington scored a quickfire 20 off just 12 balls.
Lungi Ngidi provided some early hope for the Royals with an impressive new ball when he fired successive deliveries to remove Rossington and Serel Ervi.
Harman and skipper Aiden Markram then stitched a 53-run partnership to restore parity to take Sunrisers to victory.
However, there was another sting in the tail when Bjorn Fortuyn claimed three wickets in an over to give hope to the Royals and the Boland Park crowd.
Fortuyn was again excellent on the night to finish with 3-20 on his home ground, but he could not prevent Tristan Stubbs (18 not out) and Marco Jansen (21 not out) to take Sunrisers home.
Abbreviated Score:
Paarl Royals 127/7 in 20 overs (Vihan Lubbe 28; Aiden Markram 2-21, Roelof van der Merwe 2-21) beat Sunrisers Eastern Cape 131/5 in 18.2 overs (Jordan Harman 43; Bjorn Fortuyn 3-20, Lungi) lost to Ngidi 2–31) by 5 wickets.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)