Lhuan-dre Pretorius rediscovered his touch to strike a crucial half-century to eliminate Joburg Super Kings from the Betway SA20 at Centurion on Thursday evening.
It has been a tough season for last year’s top run-scorer, but the left-hander made the most of an early let off when Dan Worrall dropped Pretorius off his bowling before he had got off the mark.
He was content to initially play second fiddle to his more senior partner, Proteas wicket-keeper Kyle Verreynne, who started like a runaway steam train.
Verreynne smashed 30 off just 15 balls in the 39-run opening stand before he was clean bowled by Nandre Burger.
It was from here on that Pretorius started hitting his straps with a couple of boundaries to get his innings moving.
He punched five sixes and two boundaries in his 34-ball 51, but just when he seemed to be gathering momentum he was run out by Matthew de Villiers.
The Royals, though, maintained the tempo throughout with stand-in captain Dan Lawrence (36 off 23 balls), Sikandar Raza (35 off 19 balls) and Asa Tribe, who was filling in for the injured David Miller in the middle-order, also contributing (30 not out off 16 balls) to push Boland Park-based side up to a formidable 210/5.
Joburg Super Kings were simply never in the chase. Without their three most experienced batters Faf du Plessis, Rilee Roussow and Donovan Ferreira, who are all out injured, their young batting unit folded under the playoff pressure.
Former JSK seamer Hardus Viljoen came back to haunt his former team with the veteran building up a good head of steam from the West Lane End.
Viljoen had the excellent figures of 2/8 from two overs at one stage, and with Bjorn Fortuin and Ottneil Baartman (2/49) chipping in too, the Super Giants were reduced to 40/4.
There was no way back from there despite a 58-run partnership between captain James Vince (47 off 29 balls) and Wiaan Mulder (41).
The Royals now face Sunrisers Eastern Cape in the Qualifier 2 at the Wanderers on Friday evening to determine who will go head-to-head with Pretoria Capitals in Sunday’s final at Newlands.
Scoreboard:
Paarl Royals: 210/5 (Pretorius 51, Lawrence 36, Raza 35, Mulder 2/45)
Joburg Super Kings: 174/8 (Vince 47, Mulder 41, Viljoen 3/24, Baartman 2/49)
Paarl Royals won by 36 runs
