Lubbe and Vilas lead Paarl Royals to their fifth victory.

With their fifth win in six games, the SA20’s second-season leaders, Paarl Royals, have kept a comfortable lead over the chasing group. They defeated one of this season’s underachievers, the Johannesburg Super Kings, on Wednesday by chasing down a score of 168 with an over and five wickets remaining. The mainstay of the chase was a 95-run partnership at the fourth wicket between Dane Vilas (42 off 26) and Wihaan Lubbe (57 off 48). Which they struck when the Royals were lagging behind at 55/3 after nine overs. Lubbe and Vilas found that the Wanderers surface. Which had been difficult to bat on for most of the game, had actually gotten better over the course of the 53 balls that they shared. Lubbe hit three clutch sixes, but Vilas was the more aggressive of the two batters, scoring his runs with a strike-rate of 161.54. When Lizaad Williams took the bowl, they had 57 off the last five, so the equation was still difficult for them. Having taken him for a six off deep square-leg, Lubbe the...