Miller helps Paarl Royals open account

David Miller led from the front with a crucial unbeaten half-century as Paarl Royals beat Sunrisers Eastern Cape in the reverse fixture to open their account in SA20 2025-26. Getting bowled out for 49 - the lowest total in the tournament's history - against the same opposition in their first game, Royals stuttered yet again in the run chase before a century stand turned the contest around.

Quinton de Kock, who fired in the last meeting between these two sides, departed early this time as he edged one to the keeper. Jonny Bairstow then broke the shackles in the fourth over of the contest by fetching three boundaries and followed it up with a few more before miscuing one in the final over of the powerplay to depart for a quickfire 33. Matthew Breetzke, however, was struggling as the Royals pulled things back.

After Breetzke's departure, skipper Tristan Stubbs also failed to kick on. Jordan Hermann kept the innings aflot with some vital boundaries. While Sunrisers were still pretty well placed at 116/4 with five overs left in the contest, they didn't get the desired finish as the wickets kept tumbling at the death. Nqobani Mokoena finished with a four-wicket haul and Ottneil Baartman delivered a perfect final over in which he added two more wickets to bowl the opposition out for 149.

The run chase certainly wasn't straightforward even though the openers hit a boundary each to get things going. Memories from four nights ago would have certainly resurfaced after Marco Jansen and Anrich Nortje tore into the batting lineup. Jansen removed both the openers in the fourth over and Nortje picked the key wickets of Kyle Verreynne and Rubin Hermann in the seventh over to reduce Royals to 35/4. Miller and Keagan Lion Cachet joined forces to steady the ship and by the end of the 11th over, Royals were precariously placed at 56/4.

With the run rate just above five, Royals needed some injection into their innings. Miller broke the deadlock with a six over Lewis Gregory and the two batters found the boundary once each in the following over to finally get the run rate up to six. Miller then slowly got into his groove as he slammed another six off Gregory and took on Tharindu Rathnayake to clear the ropes two more times to turn the game around completely. That over from the Sri Lankan brought the equation down to 31 off 24 with Miller going past fifty. Lion Cachet then hit the final nail in the coffin by fetching three boundaries in the penultimate over bowled by Jansen and even though there were slight jitters in the final over, Royals got through with two balls to spare.

Brief scores: Sunrisers Eastern Cape 149 ni 20 overs (Jordan Hermann 47; Nqobani Mokoena 4/34, Ottneil Baartman 3/36) lost to Paarl Royals 150/5 in 19.4 overs (David Miller 71*, Keagan Lion Cachet 45; Anrich Nortje 2/21) by 5 wickets