Baartman dominates as Royals beat Capitals

Paarl Royals moved top of the SA20 and secured their place in the play-offs with a six-wicket thrashing of Pretoria Capitals, powered by a superb bowling display from seamer Ottneil Baartman.

Capitals were blown away by Baartman, who finished with remarkable figures of 5-16 after claiming a hat-trick of lower-order batters.

After bowling out their opponents for 127, Royals raced to their target inside 16 overs thanks to contributions of 46 and 41 from Rubin Hermann and Dan Lawrence.

Capitals had won the toss and chosen to bat, but were soon in trouble after Baartman removed opener Connor Esterhuizen and trapped England batter Jordan Cox lbw for a golden duck.

The 32-year-old wasn’t able to secure a hat-trick on that occasion, but he returned to dismiss Andre Russell, Lizaad Williams and Lungi Ngidi with the first three balls of the 19th over.

Hardus Viljoen, who had previously taken the wicket of Capitals’ top-scorer Sherfane Rutherford (29), then had Keshav Maharaj caught off the first ball of the final over as Capitals lost their last four wickets for a single run.

Openers Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Asa Tribe were dismissed for one and five respectively by Williams early in Royals’ response, but the pairing of Hermann and Lawrence, who put on a 106-run stand in Royals’ last outing against Durban’s Super Giants, added 52 for the third wicket to steady nerves at Centurion.

Hermann provided much of the firepower in that partnership, but Lawrence took over when his partner was caught by off the bowling of Gideon Peters, forming a 57-run pairing with David Miller (28 not out).

Lawrence was bowled by Ngidi with the target in sight, before new batter Sikandar Raza scored a winning single two balls later to secure victory with 29 deliveries to spare.

Royals move above their opponents and former leaders Sunrisers Eastern Cape, topping the standings on number of wins.

Capitals need a point from their final game against Joburg Super Kings to join them.

[BBC]