SA20: Rickelton stars as Pretoria Capitals and MI Cape Town secure Saturday wins

Capitals down Royals in Paarl

The Capitals recorded their third victory of the season after beating the Paarl Royals by 21 runs in a low-scoring affair at Boland Park.

Defending a target of 139, the visitors reduced the home side to 67-4 in the 13th over with the required rate sky-rocketing to more than 10 runs an over when scoring was difficult all match.

Royals captain David Miller tried to keep his side in the contest, but the left-handed Proteas batter perished in the final over for 45 off 36 deliveries.

Visiting skipper and Proteas spinner Keshav Mahraj was outstanding with the ball, taking two wickets and going for just 14 runs on his four overs.

The rest of the bowlers had enough discipline as the hosts were restricted to 117-6 in their 20 overs.

The Capitals had earlier posted a total of 138-9 in their 20 overs after being tied down by the home team's four-prong spin attack.

Sikandar Raza went to the top of the wicket-taker list for the season with figures of 2-13 in four overs while Dan Lawrence, who was playing his first home game of the campaign, took 2-19.

Afghanistan slow-bowler Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Bjorn Fortuin added to their spin contingent, only going for 22 and 20 runs respectively in their allotted spells.

Batting at number 7, West Indies import Sherfane Rutherford played the innings of the match with an unbeaten 42 off 35 balls that took the Capitals close to the 140-run mark.

It was a first defeat for the Royals since their opening game of the tournament as the Capitals just played the lower and slower pitch conditions better on the day.

MI Cape Town secure rare win in Joburg

In the day's second match, MI Cape Town secured only their second win of the competition as a superb century from Ryan Rickelton helped them to beat the high-flying Joburg Super Kings by 35 runs in Johannesburg.

After the visitors won the toss and chose to bat first, opener Rickelton was superb, smashing 113 runs off just 60 deliveries - including eight 4s and nine 6s - for his second century of the tournament.

Fellow opener Rassie van der Dussen proved a willing partner for an opening partnership that combined for 129 runs and put MI Cape Town in the driver's seat as they went on to post a formidable total of 234/3.

The Super Kings needed a strong start but early wickets fell at regular intervals to peg them back. Kagiso Rabada struck first, dismissing Michael Pepper cheaply, before George Linde removed Matthew de Villiers. Rabada then bowled Wiaan Mulder for a duck, leaving the hosts reeling at 35/3.

James Vince and Dian Forrester steadied the ship, but the Super Kings never really looked like reaching the run rate required to chase down the massive total, and despite some lusty blows at the end of the innings, they ultimately ended up 36 runs short despite batting out their 20 overs with five wickets still standing.

To make matters worse for the Super Kings, captain Faf du Plessis picked up an injury in the field that prevented him from batting and could rule him out for the remainder of the competition.