<\/p>\n
Paarl Royals moved top of the SA20 and secured their place in the play-offs with a six-wicket thrashing of Pretoria Capitals<\/a>, powered by a superb bowling display from seamer Ottneil Baartman.<\/p>\n Capitals were blown away by Baartman, who finished with remarkable figures of 5-16 after claiming a hat-trick of lower-order batters.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> in Royals’ last outing against Durban’s Super Giants, added 52 for the third wicket to steady nerves at Centurion.<\/p>\n 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).<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Royals move above their opponents and former leaders Sunrisers Eastern Cape, topping the standings on number of wins.<\/p>\n Capitals need a point from their final game against Joburg Super Kings to join them.<\/p>\n