Lightning halted Thursday’s SA20 match between the Joburg Super Kings and Paarl Royals at the Wanderers on Thursday.
Both teams were awarded two log points, lifting JSK up to 17, level with the Sunrisers Eastern Cape, while the Royals remain third on 15.
Royals captain David Miller had earlier won the toss under clear skies and elected to bowl. His counterpart Faf du Plessis stated that he too would have taken first strike, and certainly took advantage early on.
Du Plessis and his new opening partner James Vince struck a sweet note from the outset as they followed up their rapid 32-run stand against MI Cape Town with a more substantial 73 from only 7.3 overs.
Despite not quite middling the ball, Du Plessis still managed to hack his way to 39 off only 24 balls as he taught Royals teenage seamer Nqobani Mokoena a few harsh lessons on his Bullring debut.
Du Plessis took two boundaries off Mokoena’s first over before really putting his foot down in the second with three fours and a six in the follow-up over.
With Vince also taking care of left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin through a six and four in the third over, JSK raced to 64-0 when the powerplay drew to a close.
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But the Royals tossed their ball to their golden arm Sikander Raza in the seventh over and the Zimbabwe T20I captain made an immediate impact with his very first ball of his spell when he clean bowled Du Plessis with a gorgeous off-spinner that drifted in the air before gripping and turning through the gate to crash into the stumps.
The dismissal did not stem JSK’s momentum, thoughm with Matthew de Villiers and Vince adding a further 56 from 39 deliveries for the second wicket. De Villiers upstaged his senior partner, who had settled into the anchor role after reaching his maiden SA20 fifty off 33 balls, with a rapid 30 off 22 balls.
At this stage JSK were targeting a total in the region of 200 before Raza (2-26) intervened again, having De Villiers caught on the long-off boundary, to pick up his ninth wicket of the competition in just three matches.
The JSK innings fell away a bit from hereon, especially after Wiaan Mulder, Vince and Shubham Ranjane all fell in quick succession before a floodlight failure further halted their momentum with Donovan Ferreira also perishing immediately after the resumption.
The Royals had done well to claw their way back into the contest and would have felt confident of chasing JSK’s eventual 187-6, but ultimately had to settle for a share of the spoils when the lightning intervened.
Photo: Arjun Singh/Sportzpics
