The openers batted beautifully on a wicket that was starting to offer uneven bounce.
The 10th match of the SA20 2025-26 was played between the Paarl Royals and the Mumbai Indians Cape Town at Boland Park in Paarl. The first innings of the clash had everything that a cricket fan needs from a game. Lhuan-dre Pretorius missed his maiden SA20 century by a whisker, and here are the PR vs MICT highlights in a nutshell.
The Paarl Royals won an all-important toss and elected to bat first, on a wicket that is different than all the other wickets in South Africa. High-scoring games are a rare commodity at Boland Park due to the pitch reacting differently, not making it easier for the batters to take the bowlers to the cleaners from ball one. The Paarl Royals got to 181/3 on the back of a superb opening stand from Pretorius and Asa Tribe.
Let’s take a look at the PR vs MICT highlights at Boland Park in Paarl, which had everything on offer that a cricket fan wants to see from the shortest format.
The Paarl Royals got to 50 in the first five overs, and ended the powerplay with a score of 66/0. To put it into context, there were no fancy shots played by either of the batters. It was a case of complete risk-free batting which led the Royals to the score. To add to that, they lost their first wicket in the form of Tribe with the team score on 100 – which proves the great start they had.
After getting to 100 in 10.3 overs, the Paarl Royals would have expected a total in excess of 200. But that did not happen. The wicket got tougher to bat on as the ball grew older, with the odd delivery keeping low. It was important for the batters to make full use of the powerplay, and that is exactly what the two openers did.
What stood out in the PR vs MICT highlights was Lhuan-dre Pretorius’ knock of an unbeaten 98 to steer the Paarl Royals to a competitive total. The left-handed youngster stayed out there in the middle till the very end, which is always crucial on a wicket which has something in it for the bowlers.
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As much as credit needs to be given to the Paarl Royals, the MICT bowlers were all over the place, and did not bowl the lines and lengths they would have wanted themselves to. The management went for too many off-spin bowling options simply looking at the number of left-handers that the Royals squad held, which backfired. The shortest format of the game leaves no room for the ‘left-handed batter – off-spinner’ theory as the batters are always on the lookout of attacking options.
Moreover, what hurt the MICT camp most was their inability to strike in the powerplay. Trent Boult, who is known for his jolts early on hasn’t been impactful in his initial overs in the first three games, and that is something that the Men in blue & gold have missed. To add to that, Kagiso Rabada went for 46 runs in his four overs, which dented MICT’s ability to restrict the Royals to a modest total.
The only silver lining in MICT’s bowling was the fact that Rashid Khan finally made it to the wickets column.
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