• Baartman blitz propels Paarl Royals into playoffs

    Published on

    A sensational hat-trick from seamer Ottneil Baartman fired the Paarl Royals past the Pretoria Capitals and into the SA20 playoffs at Centurion on Thursday.

    Baartman became just the second bowler in SA20’s short history to grab a hat-trick after Capitals seamer Lungi Ngidi achieved the feat just last week against Durban’s Super Giants at Kingsmead.

    His victims were Andre Russell, Lizaad Williams and Ngidi. He had earlier claimed two wickets also with successive deliveries when he clean-bowled Connor Esterhuizen and trapped Jordan Cox plumb in front.

    HIGHLIGHTS: Pretoria Capitals vs Paarl Royals

    It allowed the 32-year-old to move past his former Sunrisers Eastern Cape teammate Marco Jansen as the leading bowler in SA20 history with 57 wickets.

    Baartman’s 5-16 helped rout the Capitals for just 127 which enabled the batsmen to comfortably chase down the target with six wickets and 4.1 overs remaining. It was sufficient to earn the invaluable bonus point that propelled the Royals to top of the SA20 standings with 21 points.

    The Royals now join Sunrisers Eastern Cape as the two teams to have already secured their playoff berths.

    It was no coincidence that the first Royals teammate to congratulate Baartman on his hat-trick was Sikandar Raza. The Zimbabwe international was again in the heat of the action, following up his batting heroics a couple of nights ago, with another brilliant spell of spin bowling.

    The veteran picked up the crucial wickets of Dewald Brevis and Shai Hope to finish with figures of 2-29. Raza now sits just below Baartman on the competition’s top wicket-takers list with 13.

    The Royals’ run-chase suffered a couple of early stutters with openers Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Asa Tribe being dismissed cheaply by an inspired Lizaad Williams (2-28), but Rubin Hermann’s 46 off 28 balls (five fours, three sixes) and Dan Lawrence’s 41 off 32 ball (three fours, two sixes) put together a 52-run partnership for the third wicket to steady the ship before captain David Miller guided his team home with an unbeaten 28.

    The Royals are now primed to finish in the top two positions that will earn them a spot in the first playoff qualifier as they still have two round-robin matches remaining against Durban’s Super Giants at Kingsmead on Saturday and Joburg Super Kings at Boland Park on Monday.

    The Capitals, meanwhile, have just one more match remaining against the Joburg Super Kings at the Wanderers on Saturday and will be hoping for maximum points to ensure their progression to the playoffs for the first time since the inaugural season.

    Photo: Arjun Singh / Sportzpics for SA20

    Post by

    Dylan Johnson