The Paarl Royals climbed to the top of the SA20 standings on Thursday night, cruising to a comfortable six-wicket win over the Pretoria Capitals in Centurion as they secured their place in next week’s play-offs.
Batting first after winning the toss, the Capitals struggled to build partnerships and were ultimately restricted to 127/5 by a Royals attack led by Ottneil Baartman.
Baartman was superb, taking 5/16 for the second five-wicket haul of his T20 career and securing a hat-trick in the 19th over when he removed Andre Russell, Lizaad Williams and Lungi Ngidi from successive deliveries.
Middle-order batter Sherfane Rutherford top-scored for the hosts with 29 runs off 20 balls, but while they were in a reasonable position at 108/5 in the 16th over, they crumbled at the death.
From the last seven balls they faced, the Capitals lost four wickets for just one run as they were bowled out for 127 with five balls left in their innings.
In a clinical performance with the ball, the Royals attack were well supported by fast bowler Hardus Viljoen who took 2/17 and spinner Sikandar Raza who grabbed 2/29.
Paarl Royals innings
In response, the Royals found themselves in trouble at 17/2 in the third over of their innings, but they managed to recover.
Rubin Hermann made 46 runs off 29 balls before he was removed in the ninth over when Gideon Peters had him caught by Dewald Brevis in the deep.
After he was dismissed, Dan Lawrence (41 off 32) and captain David Miller (28 not out off 16) carried the visitors home as they compiled 128/4 with more than four overs to spare.
Though they slipped to third place in the standings, the Capitals were still well placed in the race for the knockout stages ahead of their last game of the opening round against Joburg Super Kings at the Wanderers tomorrow.
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