Paarl Royals reign over Joburg Super Kings at Wanderers to return to the top of the table

Reeza Hendricks and Moeen Ali were top achievers for the Kings, but Wihan Lubbe and Dane Vilas' partnership ultimately made the hosts come undone.

The Royals won the toss and elected to field. Bjorn Fortuin and Lungi Ngidi bowled brilliantly in tandem to subdue the Super Kings opening duo of Reeza Hendricks and Faf du Plessis. Andile Phehlukwayo and Tabrais Shamsi continued the good work with the ball as the Super Kings could only manage 62 runs off the first 10 - which they had Leus du Plooy to thank for his little cameo of 30 runs off 16 balls.

The momentum of the innings halted again as Hendricks and Sibonelo Makhanya were eating up too many balls for not enough end product. After Fabian Allen dismissed Makhanya (15 runs off 18 balls), it looked as if the Kings may only manage 120. However, Hendricks rose to the occasion on his home ground as he opened up after Makhanya's departure and began swatting the Royals attack - Ngidi in particular - all over the park to finish with a blistering 79 off 56 balls - ably supported by a Moeen Ali contribution of 23 off 12 balls.

The momentum was well and truly with the home side, who laid down a gauntlet of 169 to win. Nandre Burger did brilliantly up front to keep the pressure on the Royals and put the reins on the English duo of Jason Roy and Jos Buttler. Lizaad Williams - the second highest wicket taker in the tournament - sent Roy back to the pavillion with his very first ball of the match with the first ball of the third over.

Just as Buttler was beginning to get on top of the Kings' bowlers, captain Faf du Plessis cleverly brought Moeen Ali into the attack, who dismissed his national teammate after just three balls when Buttler holed out to mid-wicket. The ball was turning noticeably more in the second innings and Ali was capitalising on that as he clean bowled Mitchell van Buuren in his next over.

That brought Dane Vilas to the crease at the end of the tenth over with the Royals needing 114 from 66 at a daunting required rate of over 10. Vilas and Lubbe started off slowly and at the end of the 15th over the required rate had risen to 11.40.

Right on time, Vilas came to the party at the expense of Williams, whom he smashed for 21 runs in the very next over to tilt things back in the visitors' favour. Imran Tahir pulled things back and dismissed Lubbe for 57 (48b). That meant 18 was needed from the final two overs. Burger, who had figures of three overs for just nine runs, was brought back into the attack for the second-last over but went for 13 runs through a combination of gifting four runs by hitting the stumps mid-action and a Fabian Allen six.

Vilas went out off the last ball of the over but the Royals only needed five from the last over and Allen duly smashed the very first ball into the stands to seal the win.

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