Rabada, Linde star with the ball as MI Cape Town down Paarl Royals

Outstanding bowling by Kagiso Rabada, George Linde and captain Rashid Khan propelled MI Cape Town to an emphatic 33-run victory against neighbours, the Paarl Royals, in their SA20 game played at Newlands on Monday evening.

Rabada led the way with 2/22 in his four overs after not conceding a run in his first two overs. He was brilliantly backed up by Linde, who took 3/15 in his four overs, before Khan picked up 2/28 in his four, after going for 16 runs in his first over.

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The Royals had got off to a superb start in pursuit of their target of 173, Joe Root (26 off 14) and Lhaun-dre Pretorius (26 off 12) combining well up front for 38 runs for the first wicket, but when Root went, caught at short fine leg off Rabada, in the fourth over the wickets tumbled.

Pretorius followed shortly thereafter and it wasn’t long before the Royals were 65/4 after nine overs and then 78/6 after 12 overs.

Besides Root and Pretorius, the only other Royals batters to give the home team something to think about were Sam Hain (20), Mujeeb Ur Rahman (34 off 21) and 18-year-old Kwena Maphaka, who hit a thrilling 22 off 19 at the death.

The Royals eventually finished their 20 overs with 139/9 on the board, well short of their target.

Hendricks stars with the bat

Earlier, the home team posted a challenging 172/7 in their 20 overs, with all-rounder Delano Potgieter again impressing with the bat at the back end of the innings, after Reeza Hendricks had set the tone up front.

Hendricks scored a classy 59 off 37 balls and together with Rassie van der Dussen (43 off 33) put on 79 for the second wicket.

Potgieter, who picked up a five-for earlier in the competition and also scored important runs in his team’s two previous games, then boosted the score at the end of his team’s innings with a quality 29 off 18 balls.

Royals all-rounder Dayyaan Galiem was the pick of the bowlers, taking three for 24 in four.