Paarl Royals vs Durbans Super Giants, 23rd Match, SA20, 2025-26 - Commentary

A contest that went right down to the wire! The Royals held their nerves to notch up an important victory to move to the second position in the points table. As far as DSG are concerned, things continue to go downhill for them. They are still not mathematically out from the playoffs race but they will need a lot of other results to go their way. On that note, we bid you adieu! Join us tomorrow for another high-octane contest from the SA20. Until next time, goodbye and cheers!

Rubin Hermann | Player of the Match: (How's the heart?) To be fair, it's quite calm. I tried to just stay calm as possible and just keep believing that we're going to win. I wasn't nervous, but I was like, ohhh, about the death there, but yeah, luckily Raza got it through for us. (On his partnership with Lawrence) We knew just for one good partnership will win us this game. So Dan and I just tried to keep it as simple as possible, just back our options and just take it as deep as we can. And then we know if we re-stack around for long enough, it'll break the chase and luckily it took us deep and then it took us to the last ball, but we got us over the line. (On playing alongside global superstars) It's such an unbelievable tournament. It gives us so such good exposure and obviously rub shoulders with some of the greats of the game and share the field with some of the greats of the game. Maybe not in your change room but as competitors, it's super special to go from seeing them play all over the world and then obviously trying to beat them. It's awesome. (On the crowd) Crikey Moses, we have an unbelievable crowd. We're so thankful for the Paarl Royals faithful that always come out and support us. We've got such good support here and we absolutely love playing at home. We always try to do our best for the fans.

David Miller: (On whether it was a 50-50 decision to bowl first) Our plan was always to chase if we won the toss, so it wasn’t really a 50–50 for us. It generally gets better at night. Things have played a little differently here in the past, but we felt it was a chasing wicket. And obviously, superb batting from the guys in the middle — really happy for Rubes (Hermann) and Dan. They put on a phenomenal partnership. (On how important was the partnership between Hermann and Lawrence) It's great to have guys stand up in those moments and extend a partnership. Here in Paarl, that’s exactly what you need - big partnerships. Often wickets fall in clusters, so to have a match-winning stand like that, and the way they controlled the tempo, was really encouraging. It was also nice to see Rubes back where he belongs. Great to have his (Raza's) experience, he has done it all over the world. He is diving all around the ground, he is just a young 39-year-old guy.

Aiden Markram: A lot to reflect on, of course. Another close one. We didn't get on the right side of it. This tournament specifically, if you win those close ones throughout the season, you actually go quite far in this comp. But unfortunately, we've lost a couple now. You doff your cap to the opposition, a lot of good stuff from their side and quite a lot of good stuff from our side as well, but only one winner at the end of it. Nice close one again. (Confident at the halfway stage?) Yeah, I thought the wicket was quite good. 180 is always a good score. You can find ways to win games of cricket from there. So I was happy with the score. We knew we needed to bowl really well. They put us under pressure in certain moments and took risks that paid off. Really small margins as well in between all of that. The sort of odds ended up going in their favour. So it is what it is. We gave it a good crack and I'm proud of the boys for that. I'm not 100% sure how the log stacks up, but we'll do all the maths. We've got a couple of days, fortunately, before that next one, which is not a bad thing for the boys to get the feet up, rest a bit, clear the minds, and give a massive crack in Durban and either way, try to finish on a great note. So I'm looking forward to that. Our last game at home and I hope the boys can put in a good show.

Pretorius and Lawrence got together and the duo not only steadied the ship but kept their side afloat with their calculated strokeplay. Both of them raised fifties and kept batting brilliantly. Their 106-run stand put the hosts on track but two wickets in a space of five balls changed things. Miller fell cheaply and that must have been nervy for the hosts. But, Hermann kept his calm and kept the scoreboard ticking with ones and twos although he seemed to have lost a bit of rhythm. The real flourish came from Raza as he struck two fours and two sixes to take his side over the finish line. It got tight in the end with 2 needed off the final delivery but Raza delivered the big hit to send his side into a frenzy.

21:04 Local Time, 19:04 GMT, 00:34 IST: What a nail-biting contest it turned out to be! It's the highest-ever run-chase at this ground. Kudos to Hermann for showing great maturity when his side needed it the most and that feisty cameo from Raza was the icing on the cake. Questions were raised when Miller chose to bowl on what was expected to be a slowish surface but he has proved the doubters wrong. To be honest, this surface played the best of the lot at the venue in this season so far. A brilliant fifty from Markram, a breezy cameo from Klaasen and a blazing 10-ball 32* from Livingstone took DSG to a strong total. In response, both the Royals' openers fell within the powerplay and they were pushed on the back foot.

2 runs needed off the final delivery! The men in the deep are in by 10-15 yards

3 needed off 2 deliveries! Super Over anyone?

Markram has a chat with Wiese

6 runs needed off the final over! If the Royals go sensibly about it, they will win