Tshwane Spartans win high-scoring thriller by one run
Gihahn Cloete's 80 had carried the visiting side to 203 for 5, but Cameron Delport's 73 ensured Paarl Rocks were in the game till the very end
Gihahn Cloete's 80 had carried the visiting side to 203 for 5, but Cameron Delport's 73 ensured Paarl Rocks were in the game till the very end
Commentator: @sreshthx
7.18pm That's all from us at ESPNcricinfo. See you day after tomorrow for more MSL action. Till then, it's goodbye from all of us. Hope you enjoyed our coverage. Bye bye!
7.13pm Time for the presentation. Theunis de Bruyn is the Man of the Match. "Clearly a good wicket to bat on. Four-hundred runs today," he says. "The groundsman has done a good job because Paarl isn't a high-scoring ground. What a match. As soon as the game was done, I told Dean 'great save', because he did save four runs. Today was a massive game, have to get the momentum going into Durban."
AB de Villiers: "Too old for such great contests (laugh). Thought we had enough, but Delport really got them into a great start. We know there's still a lot of room for improvement. But proud how they dealt with the nerves. Couple of hiccups here and there, but we'll get better. I'm just happy Elgar's not in the hospital. He's alright. We started the tournament with a loss, and if you get a couple of losses, it gets difficult to get back. So if you get a slow start, it's hard to come back. So definitely very happy."
Henry Davids: "We thought they were 20 runs short, because it's an awesome wicket. It's a square boundary, so runs can be got. And we played really well, tough coming one-run short, but good game. Our bowling was not good. We didn't hit the lengths. I think if we bowled better that would've had much lesser. But Delport was excellent, and coming close.... we know we had a good game. "
7.05pm Oh man, my heart is pumping hard. What a crazy game of cricket. As Aamer Sohail said... "Paarl Rocks rocked", but Spartans held on to win tonight's contest. Some excellent batting all through the day. First it was de Bruyn, Cloete and de Villiers who did some hammering. After that, it was Cameron Delport's amazing 73 that started Rocks' chase really well. Don't forget Mosehle's eight-ball 20 towards the end that really made the Spartans nervous. It's a loss for the home side, but they'll be mightly pleased with their effort. Remember, they'll get reinforcements in the form of Faf du Plessis and Aiden Markram very soon too. Stick around, we'll get you reactions.
Stoffels: "Elgar MOM for that save! Game changer"
Andrew Birch: "I wanted to defend the final over. Glad it came off, and very good game in the end. But it's a batter's game so you have nothing to lose. Lucky it paid off tonight. It was important for us to win because of a poor performance in Cape Town. Good deck, good performance from the boys."
Six off two. Paarl need one boundary for certain
Spartans slowing things down. Fine leg goes deep
Gourav: ""Birch would be happy to have 15/16 odd to defend"...unquoting myself after the excellent little cameo from Mosehle"
Birch to bowl the final over.
Gihahn Cloete's 80 had carried the visiting side to 203 for 5, but Cameron Delport's 73 ensured Paarl Rocks were in the game till the very end