Elgar guides Spartans home

PAARL - The Tshwane Spartans got their Mzansi Super League campaign up and running with a tense eight-wicket victory over the Paarl Rocks at Boland Park on Sunday.

After suffering two successive washouts, the visitors desperately needed the win and it was set up by their senior players, particularly opening pair Dean Elgar and Theunis de Bruyn, who shared a 104-run opening stand.

Elgar would have been particularly pleased with his undefeated 88 off 60 balls (7x4, 2x6) that showed once again that the gritty left-hander is a highly under valued white-ball cricketer.

He was fluent during the powerplay, running hard between the wickets with De Bruyn (42 off 33 balls) before unleashing a flurry of boundaries at the death just when the Rocks seemed to clawing their way back into the contest.

Elgar was, though, well supported by Spartans captain Heinrich Klaasen, who ensured the visitors did not waste the solid start after AB de Villiers (19 off 10 balls) failed to light up Boland Park.

%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/ThisIsTshwane?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ThisIsTshwane #RocksVSpartans #MSLT20 pic.twitter.com/mRZiXLHlHe

— Tshwane Spartans (@SpartansMSLT20)

Klaasen took a particular liking to young Kerwin Mungaroo, who had earlier bowled particularly well, by the striking the seamer for two sixes in the penultimate over.

That effectively closed the game out for the visitors, leaving the Rocks to contemplate a poor day in the field where they dropped a couple of catches in the swirling wind and mis-fielded on the boundary.

The Paarl Rocks faithful that once again came out in their numbers had hoped for so much more at the interval after English international James Vince starred on his debut with an undefeated 86 off just 53 balls.

This propelled the Rocks to 185/6 and they would have felt that score was totally defendable, but the visitora from the capital had other ideas.