The phrase ‘spin it to win it’ is mostly heard around the Indian subcontinent where spinners are heavily used irrespective of the format. But, there was a first in franchise T20 history as Paarl Royals bowled 20 overs of spin in the SA20 at Boland Park, to tilt the contest in their favour.
20 overs of spin: Paarl Royals achieve franchise T20 first
Batting first, most of the Royals' batters struggled against the Pretoria Capitals spinners. Joe Root (78*) and David Miller (29*) were the exceptions, helping their side to 140-4 on a sluggish track. Paarl captain Miller then went a step further in the second innings, entrusting all 20 overs to his spinners to come away with a win by 11 runs, helping the Royals qualify for the knockouts of the third edition of SA20.
The third over of the second innings, bowled by Bjorn Fortuin, got the ball rolling as the left-arm orthodox bowler bowled a wicket maiden, getting Rahmanullah Gurbaz stumped.
The trio of Fortuin, Dunith Wellalage, and Mujeeb Ur Rahman bowled 12 overs in total – conceding only 53 runs and taking five crucial wickets to stem the run flow. Part-timer Joe Root and leggie Nqabayomzi Peter bowled the other eight overs of the innings. After taking two wickets on the evening, Mujeeb became the joint-highest wicket-taker in the 2025 SA20 season alongside Marco Jansen.
Preceding this match, the Royals had named the likes of Eshan Malinga, Kwena Maphaka, and Lungi Ngidi in their playing XIs but after preparing a dry track in hot conditions, Miller & co. named all-rounder Dayyan Galiem as the only fast-bowling option in the playing XI, leaving out all the specialist fast bowlers.
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Match Match 20, Paarl Royals vs Pretoria Capitals
20 overs of spin in a T20 match: Previous instances
This is only the third instance of 20 overs being bowled by spin in a T20 match and only the first time, this tactic has been employed in franchise T20 cricket.
In February 2019, the Lankan Cricket Club bowled 20 overs of spin to beat Burgher Recreation Club by 44 runs in the SLC Twenty-20 tournament. The second previous instance of the same came at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games as Malaysia bowled 20 overs of spin to restrict Bangladesh to 116/5.
In response, Bangladesh bowled 5 overs of medium pace and 15 overs of spin on a slow track to win the match by 2 runs and qualify for the semi-final where they were knocked out by eventual gold medallists India.
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