Hermann, Lawrence set up last-ball win as Paarl Royals climb to second place

Rubin Hermann and Dan Lawrence scored sixties to set up Paarl Royals' thrilling six-wicket, last-ball victory over Durban's Super Giants, which moved them to second place in the points table and ended DSG's hopes of qualifying. Hermann and Lawrence added 106 for the third wicket in just 61 balls as the Royals chased 187 on a surface that has been difficult all season to play on. This decisively shifted the momentum in their favor. In the end, the chase was the most successful run-chase at the venue. Sunil Narine opened the batting for DSG and scored 22 off 11 balls before being bowled out by Mujeeb Ur Rahman after David Miller chose to bowl first. Aiden Markram, captain, led the innings with 66 runs off 46 balls and shared a 76-run stand with David Bedingham for the third wicket. Markram lost in the 17th over, but Heinrich Klaasen and Liam Livingstone helped DSG win well. DSG reached 186/5, the highest total at the venue this season, thanks to Klaasen's 29 runs off 18 balls and Livingstone's 32 runs off ten. The Royals suffered early losses to openers Asa Tribe and Lhuan-dre Pretorius, but Hermann responded with a towering six off Simon Harmer on the powerplay's final ball. He and Lawrence steadily rebuilt against the spinners in the middle overs before going after Livingstone and scoring 19 off the eleventh over. Lawrence scored fifty runs off 33 deliveries and added six runs to the 100-run partnership with a six off Ethan Bosch, but he soon fell, caught at point while chasing a short and wide one. Miller cheaply followed him back to the pavilion and was caught by Narine on the boundary, requiring 45 off the final five overs for the Royals. After that, Sikandar Raza played a decisive game, scoring an unbeaten 27 runs off 13 deliveries to keep the chase moving forward. When Wiese bowled the final over, which needed six runs, Raza struck a six off the final ball to win the match in dramatic fashion.