The Paarl Royals booked their place in the semi-finals of the Betway SA20, despite falling to a 59 run defeat to the Pretoria Capitals in the last round-robin match on Tuesday.

After the Capitals scored a huge 229 runs in their 20 overs, the Royals had to play a game within a game.

Kusal Mendis, a Sri Lankan international, was the mainstay of the Capitals’ innings. He scored 80 runs off of 41 balls. Colin Ingram (41) and Phil Salt (39) also made contributions that were important.

The Paarl team’s secondary goal was 163, which was just enough to beat out the Super Giants of Durban for the last spot in the semi-finals.

When the Royals were down to 38/3 in the Powerplay and then 101/5 in the 14th over when captain David Miller walked back to the pavilion, it gave the Super Giants hope that they could move forward.

But the Royals still had Jos Buttler at the crease, and England’s limited-overs captain hit a great 70 off 45 balls (44, 56) to bring his team close to qualifying.

When Buttler was out, the Royals still needed 10 runs off of 8 balls, so it was up to Bjorn Fortuin to score 8 runs off of 8 balls to get the Royals into the semi-finals.

The Capitals, who are at the top of the table, will be glad that they got back to winning after their loss to the Super Giants. On Wednesday, they will play the Royals again in the first semi-final at the Wanderers.

On Thursday at Centurion, the third-placed Sunrisers Eastern Cape will play the second-placed Joburg Super Kings in the second Betway SA20 semi-final.