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Ottneil Baartman delivered a seam-bowling masterclass to claim a marvellous hat-trick that formed part of a brilliant five-wicket haul to drive Paarl Royals into the SA20 playoffs at a sold-out Centurion on Thursday evening.
According to a release, 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 move past his former Sunrisers Eastern Cape teammate, Marco Jansen, as the leading bowler in 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 target with six wickets and 4.1 overs remaining. It was sufficient to earn the invaluable bonus point that propelled the Royals to the top of the Betway SA20 standings with 21 points. Royals now join the 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 Zimbabwean 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 dismissals. The four Player of the Match candidates were Ottneil Baartman, Rubin Hermann, Sikandar Raza, and Sherfane Rutherford, with the hat-trick hero winning 89.5% of the fan vote. 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 (46 off 28 balls, 5x4, 3x6) and Dan Lawrence (41 off 32 balls, 3x4, 2x6) 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. Royals are now primed to finish in the top two positions that will 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 one more match remaining against 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 Season 1. Centurion will next host the Eliminator on Thursday, 22 January, after successfully selling out all five matches hosted this season at the Capitals' home ground. (ANI)
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