Paarl deliver a royal thrashing of Super Kings to stay in SA20 contention

The Paarl Royals employed a simple strategy to overwhelm the Joburg Super Kings in Thursday night’s SA20 eliminator at SuperSport Park — they out-hit them.

In a beat down that would have made the greatest pugilists proud, the Royals earned a shot at qualifying for the competition’s final defeating the Super Kings by 36 runs.

A relentless assault against a JSK attack that again lacked discipline, saw the pink-clad brigade from the Boland, hammer 16 fours and 13 sixes to rack up 210/5, the fifth highest total in this season’s competition.

And David Miller didn’t even play.

It was the third time the Super Kings have conceded over 200 this season — the second time against the Royals — and like the bowlers’ performances on the previous occasions, the lack of control and the resulting inconsistency was alarming.

They’ve had their problems with injuries this season and the absence of Faf du Plessis and Donovan Ferreira certainly hurt, but it’s not the reason the Super Kings have been so bad with the ball this season.

James Vince, the stand-in captain, couldn’t employ any semblance of a fielding plan for any length of time, as fours and sixes whizzed by him, providing one more spectator the chance to share in the sponsor’s R2m prize, while another six splashed in between some inflatables in the pool.

The Royals could not but enjoy themselves.

Lhuan-dre Pretorius, whose half-century at the same stage at the same ground last year was in vain, smashed a 34-ball 51 that included a pair of fours and five sixes.

Given this venue’s history as good for chasing, there was a feeling among some that Paarl’s total was a little bit short. Pretorius’s run out — courtesy of a sublime throw from the boundary by Matthew de Villiers — came at the end of the 11th over, and his partner at the time — stand-in skipper Dan Lawrence — was on just five.

But this Super Kings attack was simply incapable of creating any pressure. Four balls after Pretorius’ dismissal, Lawrence walloped a buffet ball from Duan Jansen to the long-on boundary.

He followed that by clubbing a pair of sixes off Akeal Hosein in the 13th over to set the Royals on their merry way.

Dan Worrall was the stand-out bowler conceding only 20 runs, but the rest of the attack all had economy rates above 10.

Instead of a fast start, the Super Kings found themselves three down by the fourth over with Paarl’s bowling nowhere near as generous as theirs had been earlier.

Any hope they had rested on a partnership between Vince and the in-form Leus du Plooy, but the latter was sold short by his captain, when given out lbw.

To the naked eye it appeared that umpire Steve Harris had been generous in raising his finger to Ottneil Baartman’s appeal, but when Du Plooy pleaded with Vince to review the decision Vince appeared to tell him he didn’t see the trajectory of the ball. It had pitched outside leg stump.

In the dugout Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming delivered a response that rhymes with luck.

The Super Kings were all out of that, and for the fourth season in a row they were also out of the tournament before the final.

The Royals will face the Sunrisers Eastern Cape at the Wanderers on Friday night to decide who gets to go to Cape Town to take on the Pretoria Capitals in the final.

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