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Davids powers Paarl Rocks to emphatic MSL final triumph against the Tshwane Spartans

Paarl Rocks have been impressive in this year's Mzansi Super League.
Paarl Rocks have been impressive in this year's Mzansi Super League.
Image: Richard Huggard/Gallo Images

Henry Davids maybe close to the end of his glittering domestic career but showed age is nothing but a number when he powered the Paarl Rocks to their first Mzansi Super League title in Paarl.

The 39-year-old from Stellenbosch made the Tshwane Spartans’ 147/6 look like a cakewalk as the hosts cantered home by eight  wickets with more than five overs to spare.

Davids (77*) and Cameron Delport (18) hit more fours (nine) and sixes (three) in their 45-ball opening partnership that yielded 80 ballistic runs than in the Spartans innings put together.

Davids was the aggressor and cleaned out all the bowlers on his way to the fastest MSL 50 off just 22 balls.

22 of those runs came off Lutho Sipamla’s only over as the Rocks went about their middling chase with the necessary haste in front of a deliriously raucous capacity crowd at Boland Park.

The Spartans misread the nature of the pitch and went for pace where the Rocks slowed things done. The Spartans paid the price as the hosts raced to 72/0 in the six-over powerplay.

Delport was castled by David Wiese (1/34) in the eighth over, but more than half of the target had been blasted away.

Whatever remained of the chase was easy, so long as Davids was there. 

It was Dwaine Pretorius who really sealed the deal with a belligerent 21-ball 43 that snuffed out any chance of a comeback.

He hit three big sixes and one four as the Rocks uncomplicated what could have been a tricky chase. Imran Manack (1/17) claimed Pretorius’s scalp, but the horse had long bolted by then.

On a sluggish surface, the Spartans’ total always had a sense of inadequacy. They also didn’t take notes from the hosts in terms of how to bowl on the pitch.

Taking the pace off the ball was the name of the game, something the Rocks did to excellent effect.

Only AB de Villiers (51) and Wiese (14) scored at more than run-a-ball for the visitors.

They also weren’t able to string together meaningful partnerships as Isuru Udana (2/24), Tabraiz Shamsi (2/29) and and Kerwin Mungroo (1/21) applied the permanent skids.

Udana removed Tony de Zorzi (five) early and came back later to prise out De Villiers.

Shamsi, who shelled an easy return catch off De Villiers when on 21 and also had Pite van Biljon (19) dropped by Sibonelo Makhanya on nine off his bowling, accounted for Dean Elgar (22) and Heinrich Klaasen (21).

Such was the stranglehold the Rocks had, only eight fours and two sixes were hit in the innings.

The first was clattered in the 17th over off Udana by De Villiers, who was then bowled the very next ball.

The tardiness of the Spartans saw them crawl to 42/1 after six overs and 73/2 after 10.

There was no momentum, something that Delport and Davids gave the hosts from the start and for Davids, until the emphatic end.