Paarl Royals thump MI Cape Town to tighten grip on top spot

After MI Cape Town had won the toss and opted to bowl, English duo Jason Roy and James Buttler combined superbly for a 116-run opening stand with a wide array of shots. Roy scored 68 off 46 balls before going out on the first ball of the 14th over.

Another Englishman came to the crease in the form of Sam Curran. The rate slowed down and Curran and Buttler would put on 24 runs before the latter was dismissed for a well-played 54 from 42 balls by Sri Lankan speedster Nuwan Thushara, who dismissed Fabian Allen with the very next ball.

Captain David Miller then retired hurt after being hit on the toe by Proteas teammate Kagiso Rabada's yorker. Thusara, the pick of the bowlers gave MI Cape Town some momentum going into their innings as he conceded just nine from his last two overs right at the death as the hosts set a target of 163.

The average innings score at Boland Park is 138 and MI Cape Town's task became just that much more complicated when they lost two wickets from the very first two balls of their innings with eventual man-of-the-match Bjorn Fortuin the destroyer.

The visitors never really recovered from that as the Royals took pace off the ball regularly, which made boundary-hitting difficult on a slow pitch to boot, which put into perspective how well Buttler and Roy batted.

Connor Esterhuizen top scored with 32 runs. Fortuin ended up with three scalps, while Lungisani Ngidi, Obed McCoy and Tabrais Shamsi took two apiece as the Cape side were skittled out for just 103, which meant the Royals won by a whopping margin. All is not lost for MI Cape Town as they are still in semi-final contention in fourth spot.