Written off by many before the tournament even started, then demolished by the Sunrisers Eastern Cape in their first game, Paarl Royals now stand on the cusp of the play-offs. Their story is one of triumph and despair, youth and experience, last-gasp victories and a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
There may not be a secret to this success, but captain David Miller is quick to praise the togetherness in the group. “I thinkat the start of the competition, giving us this position after seven games, I think we would have definitely taken that andrun with it because, just looking at the experience in our team, we don’t have the experience like the other teams. I think what we’ve done really, really well is we’ve been really competitive and we’ve just made sure that we stay in our lane and, you know, just play ball. We’ve tried to work on our fielding and really be together as a team and it’s definitely shown.”
Play ball they certainly have, including the remarkable chase against DSG on a glorious Paarl evening, where very few would have thought they could chase a Boland Park SA20 record score of 187 in front of the vibrant pink hordes. That they did this without real contributions from Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Miller himself speaks volumes for the depth and determination in the team. There were three heroes with the bat, Dan Lawrence and Rubin Hermann combining for a Royals record 106 for the third wicket, and then the experience of Sikandar Raza, helping Hermann to get them over the line.
It is Raza that exemplifies what Miller thinks is so crucial in their success. The 39-year-old Zimbabwean captain has huge experience, and his arrival from the third game immediately made an impact. Speaking after the win against MICT on the 4th January, the Royals captain was effusive in his praise:” he’s had a big impact on the field. I love the way he plays the game. He’s always wanting to be a part of the game. With the ball, fielding, he always gets into the hot spots. Batting, I’ve seen him bat all (the way) from one to six. He’s the kind of player that fits in perfectly with us. He always wants to put his hand up. As you said, he’s the ripe age of 39. He’s still running around and got a lot of enthusiasm. Bringing a lot of energy to the young guys as well, which is really a compliment to him and how professional he is. He’s got a great cricket brain, so it’s nice to have that experience as well. Off the field, helping youngsters, different options here and there with the batters and bowlers. He’s been a huge part to play in our last three games.”
Raza’s impact cannot be under-estimated. He shares the most wickets in the tournament with two of his team-mates, Nqobani Mokoena and Ottniel Baartman. The Royals’ attack is no different to every other part of the make-up of the team. It is a blend of fire and ice. Mokoena brings the fire, with the exuberance and fearlessness of youth that perhaps only a 19-year-old can bring. This is counter-balanced beautifully with the craft and guile of Baartman, Raza, Mujeeb Ur-Rahman and Bjorn Fortuin. It is an attack that skittled champions MICT for 88 in their own back yard, and restricted former champions SEC to 149 at their fortress St. George’s Park.
The batting line-up is no different, with the youngest opening partnership in the competition making their contributions to the success of the team. Add to this the experience of a combined 885 matches of T20 cricket between Miller and Raza, the enterprise of Hermann and Lawrence and the depth of being able to call on Delano Potgieter, Kyle Verreynne and Keagan Lion-Cachet when needed, and one has a better view as to why this team has defied the odds to be where they are in the competition.
It is a team that has achieved 3 of their 4 wins in the final over, defending against MICT and chasing against SEC and DSG. Miller touches on why he believes they have been able to pull through in the clutch moments, how the ice in their veins have taken them to success: “You know, it’s (Paarl Royals) become one of those close-knit teams. So that definitely helps a lot in believing in each other and supporting each other all the way through. So in terms of chasing that(the target of 187), TP (Trevor Penney) actually, the coach said, you know, they got 186 runs and we got to go get them.” Get them they did, as when Miller and Keagan Lion-Cachet led them to victory over the Sunrisers from a seemingly impossible situation.
Earlier in the day, it was by no means obvious that the Royals would “go and get them”. The fire-blackened slopes of the Drakenstein mountains appeared serene after Saturday’s conflagration. This was a marked contrast to DSG’s and South Africa’s T20 captain Aiden Markram, who brought his A game to Paarl. Watched by national coach Shukri Conrad, the tall and imposing Markram was at his classy best. He led his team to a total that no team has chased at Paarl in 3 seasons and some change of the SA20. In fact, in all representative men’s T20 cricket at Boland Park (92 matches in all including one international), this is the second highest chase ever, and the fourth highest second innings total. The highest chase was by the Durban Heat against the Paarl Rocks in the Mzansi Super League in 2019. In the Heat team that day, and making a fiery 40 was Royals captain Miller, who has now featured in both of the highest chases on the picturesque ground.
Back to the future, and the SA20! In order to get over the line in the match, Miller described the thought process that needed to be followed: “It doesn’t matter how we get them. We just need to make sure that we’re really hitting our strengths and playing really well. We always knew one big partnership would do it. Obviously, that was an extremely good partnership. (between Lawrence and Hermann) Then it got really close at the back end, but (we) held our nerve. Look, in this T20 game, you win games and lose games, but it’s really nice to win those close games. You can actually get a lot more confidence as a team when it’s really down to the wire.” The Royals know all about going down to the wire this SA20 season.
If Saturday 10th January 2026 was all about fire at Boland Park, then Tuesday 13th was all about ice. None colder than that which flowed through the veins of a Punjab-born Zimbabwean on a balmy night in South Africa. In the blink of an eye, as the final ball of the match soared towards the grandstand off his trusted blade, experience triumphed with youth, despair became redemption and ice gave way to fire.