Twitter Reactions: Paarl Rocks win the thriller by two runs against the Blitz

Mohammad Nawaz played swift knock of 41 runs off 23 balls.

View : 572

2 Min Read

Faf Du Plessis
info
Faf Du Plessis. (Photo Source: Twitter)

It was the second meeting of Paarl Rocks and Cape Town Blitz in MSL 2019. And, fans expected some enthralling performance from both the teams. However, none of the sides left any effort in taking the competition to its utmost level.

Cape Town Blitz won the toss and asked Paarl Rocks to bat first on a difficult track of Newlands. However, the side batting first didn’t get the best of their starts and lost opener Cameron Delport at a score of 19 runs. After his dismissal, Faf du Plessis came out to bat and stitched a partnership of 54 runs. The Paarl Rocks skipper could only muster 21 runs before he was caught by Wahab Riaz off Gregory Mahlokwana. James Vince (23), Dwaine Pretorius (29) contributed well in the middle-order but none of them could convert their starts.

However, Paarl Rocks ended their innings with a competitive total of 168 runs for the loss of eight wickets in 20 overs. The right-handed opener Henry Davids emerged as the top-scorer for Paarl, who amassed 46 runs off 33 balls with the help of four boundaries and one six.

In the bowling, for Cape Town Blitz, Dale Steyn continued picking wickets and recorded figures of 2/38. He is currently the leading wicket-taker of MSL 2019 season with 10 wickets his name.

Cape Town Blitz fall agonisingly short

Cape Town Blitz was expected to avenge their previous loss against the same opponent. During the chase, their openers never looked to slow down and added 34 runs in first four overs. However, Blitz skipper Quinton de Kock looked in a hurry and in an attempt to hit a six, he played a flick shot on a slow delivery off Hardus Viljoen. The ball couldn’t cross the rope and was caught by Henry Davids.

Moreover, Paarl Rocks bowler, Bjorn Fortuin took two consecutive wickets of Marques Ackerman and well-settled opener Janneman Malan in one over. It left Cape Town Blitz struggling in their quest to chase down a normal-looking target of 168 runs. Their middle-order once again collapsed against Paarl bowlers.

After Paarl pacers’ convincing bowling display, Tabraiz Shamsi was brought into the action and he took two important wickets of Liam Livingstone and Asif Ali in the second over of his spell. Towards the end, Vernon Philander, the Blitz all-rounder, played a cameo of 33 runs off 25 balls. He also stitched a 52-run partnership with Mohammad Nawaz before he was caught at backward point off Dwaine Pretorius.

It was Nawaz’s amazing hitting that kept Blitz in the game. The equation came down to 12 runs off the last over with Isuru Udana being handed over the responsibility to bowl. He struck off the very first delivery to dismiss the dangerous Nawaz who scored 41 off just 23 balls. However, it still came down to four off the last ball thanks to Magala who managed to hit a boundary off the penultimate delivery coupled with two wides prior. But the batsman couldn’t finish off the game and the Blitz could add only one run to fall short of the target by just three runs.

Here is how Twitter reacted:

Get every cricket updates! Follow Us:

googletelegraminstagramwhatsappyoutubethreadstwitter

Download Our App

For a better experience: Download the CricTracker app from the IOS and Google Play Store