Kagiso Rabada, George Linde and skipper Rashid Khan bowled MI Cape Town to their second victory of the ongoing SA20, first at home on Monday, January 13. Rabada was adjudged the Player of the Match for his figures of 2/22 as he broke open the game against the Paarl Royals in the powerplay itself with a couple of wicket maidens. Rabada became the first bowler in SA20’s short history to bowl back-to-back two maiden overs inside the powerplay.
Rabada sent back both the Royals openers Joe Root and Lhuan-dre Pretorius to peg the Royals back, who had smashed 53 runs in the other four overs in the field restrictions. Rabada also took his T20 tally of maiden overs to 10 with those couple of maiden overs, as he joined the likes of Mohammad Nabi, Josh Hazlewood and Piyush Chawla on the list. Rabada went past the likes of Brett Lee, Yuzvendra Chahal (both with nine) and R Ashwin (eight) on the maidens list.
Rabada got lucky with the Root dismissal as it was bowled down the leg and the England international ended up playing straight into the hands of a short fine-leg fielder. Pretorius was really taking the game to the opposition and his dismissal was a bit planned as Rabada went wide and got him caught at deep backward point as the Royals lost both openers inside the powerplay, chasing a target of 173.
After Rabada’s burst, the Royals collapsed in the post-powerplay period losing five wickets in next seven overs to completely surrender to Rashid and Linde. Mujeeb ur Rahman and Kwena Maphaka’s cameos denied MICT getting a bonus point and helped the Royals not have their NRR get butchered.
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Earlier, it was Reeza Hendricks’ half-century that lifted MICT’s score after a slow start. Hendricks and Rassie van der Dussen stitched a 79-run partnership for the second wicket to make a storming comeback into the contest and eventually win it. Royals have now won one and lost one out of the two games played.
