Sherfane Rutherford and Dewald Brevis blasted 86-run partnership off 27 balls
Capitals won the match with a bonus point against MI Cape Town
Defending champions MI Cape Town are the bottom position
Pretoria Capitals ended 2025 with a bang as they secured their first win of the season in an emphatic manner against the defending champions, MI Cape Town, at New Lands, Cape Town. They joined the Paarl Royals to log their first winning points of the tournament in style.
Sherfane Rutherford enjoyed a New Year’s Eve to remember with the West Indies allrounder delivering the perfect all-round performance for Capitals.
Rutherford (47 not out 15 balls, 6x6) and Dewald Brevis (36 not out off 13 balls, 1x4, 4x6) brought the fireworks with the bat before the Windies superstar delivered a career-best bowling performance of 4/24 to dismiss MI Cape Town for just 135 in response to the Capitals’ mammoth 220/5.
Kagiso Rabada made a strong comeback after injury for MI Cape Town reducing Capital to 36/3 after powerplay. However, the explosive soon turned the tide in the favour of the visitors with a scintillating 86-run partnership off just 27 balls.
It was a belligerent exhibition of power-hitting with 92 runs for the loss of just one wicket at a run-rate of 18.2 coming in the last five overs.
The duo almost matched each other shot for shot, but it was Rutherford’s astonishing assault on Dewald Pretorius in the penultimate over that shocked the Newlands faithful.
The West Indian blasted four successive maximums, which formed part of a sequence of a half dozen sixes in a row that had been kickstarted by Brevis’ double in the previous over.
It was the perfect ending after Shai Hope (45 off 30 balls, 3x4, 2x6) and Wihan Lubbe (60 off 36 balls, 7x4, 2x6) had done the initial resurrection job.
The four Player of the Match candidates were Dewald Brevis, Wihan Lubbe, Keshav Maharaj and Sherfane Rutherford with the West Indian winning 77.4% of the fan vote.
MI Cape Town’s chase was heavily dependent on their openers Ryan Rickleton (33 off 17 balls) and Rassie van der Dussen (28 off 20 balls) for a brisk start and the pair duly delivered a 60-run stand within the Powerplay.
But their back-to-back dismissal within a short period stalled MI Cape Town’s run chase, despite Nicholas Pooran matching the fireworks of his fellow West Indian Rutherford by smashing Keshav Maharaj (3/28) for four consecutive sixes in his six-ball 25.
Though Maharaj eventually got Pooran and had the last laugh. He led from the front and took three crucial wickets to rip into MI Cape Town's middle-order and dismantled their run-chase.
Earlier in the day, Paarl Royals captain David Miller masterminded his team’s successful run-chase with a timely unbeaten 71 runs off just 38 balls.
