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Ottneil Baartman’s hat-trick and five-wicket haul powered Paarl Royals into the SA20 playoffs, topping the standings with 21 points.
Paarl Royals rejoice against Durban’s Super Giants. (SA20)
Paarl Royals rejoice with Ottneil Baartman. Ottneil Baartman delivered a seam-bowling masterclass to assert a marvellous hat-trick that formed a part of a superb five-wicket haul to drive Paarl Royals into the SA20 playoffs at a sold-out Centurion on Thursday evening.
Baartman became just the second bowler in SA20 history to grab a hat-trick after Pretoria 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. It allowed the 32-year-old to maneuver past his former Sunrisers Eastern Cape teammate Marco Jansen because the leading bowler within the League’s history with 57 wickets.
Baartman’s 5/16 helped rout the Capitals for just 127 which enabled the batters to comfortably chase down the goal 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.
Royals now join Sunrisers Eastern Cape because the two teams to have already secured their playoff berths.
It was no coincidence that the primary Royals teammate to congratulate Baartman on his hat-trick was Sikandar Raza. The Zimbabwean international was again in the warmth of the motion, following up his batting heroics a few nights ago, with one other good spell of spin bowling.
The veteran picked up the crucial wickets of Dewald Brevis and Shai Hope to complete with figures of two/29. Raza now sits slightly below Baartman on the competition’s top wicket-takers list with 13 dismissals.
The 4 Player of the Match candidates were Ottneil Baartman, Rubin Hermann, Sikandar Raza, Sherfane Rutherford with the hat-trick hero winning 89.5% of the fan vote.
Royals’ run-chase suffered a few early stutters with openers Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Asa Tribe being dismissed cheaply by an inspired Lizaad Williams (2/28), but Rubin Hermann (46 off 28 balls, 5×4, 3×6) and Dan Lawrence (41 off 32 balls, 3×4, 2×6) put together a 52-run partnership for the third wicket to regular the ship before captain David Miller guided his team home with an unbeaten 28.
Royals are actually primed to complete in the highest two positions that may earn them a spot in Qualifier 1 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 another match remaining against Joburg Super Kings on the Wanderers on Saturday and will probably be hoping for optimum points to make sure their progression to the playoffs for the primary time since Season 1.
Centurion will next host the Eliminator on Thursday, 22 January after successfully selling out all five matches hosted this season on the Capitals’ home ground.
January 16, 2026, 10:03 IST
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