Almost all the teams for T20 World Cup 2026 have been announced. There have been a lot of discussions regarding the selection of Team India. There has been a debate on the neglect of players in some other teams also. The story of South Africa is also such, in which there was an uproar when 2-3 players were not selected. One of these fast bowlers is continuously responding with his performance. This is fast bowler Ottenil Bartman, who has taken the most wickets in the SA20 league and this time he took a hat-trick to give his team an easy victory.
This miracle of Bartman was seen in the match played on Thursday 15th January in Centurion. Bartman, who plays for Paarl Royals, did this feat against Pretoria Capitals. In the 25th match of SA20, Pretoria team came out to bat first but it had a bad start and the reason for this was Bartman. Bartman took 2 consecutive wickets in his first over (fourth over of the innings). He got both these wickets on the initial balls of the over.
Although Bartman could not take a hat-trick, he pushed Pretoria on the backfoot from the very beginning. After this, the team's wickets kept falling continuously. Then Bartman, who came to bowl for the last time in the 19th over, died after completing his incomplete work. Bartman, who once again took 2 wickets in the first 2 balls of the over, this time also took 3 consecutive wickets in his name and thus made this match special for himself by taking a hat-trick. Along with the hat-trick, he also took 5 wickets in this match. He made these 5 dismissals while conceding only 16 runs in 4 overs.
Ottneil Baartman is unstoppable!
18.1 – c Raza b Baartman
18.2 – b Baartman
18.3 – c&b Baartman#BetwaySA20 #PCvPR #WelcomeToIncredible pic.twitter.com/A5PEkmvu7D— Betway SA20 (@SA20_League) January 15, 2026
This performance of Bartman was a direct message to the South African selectors, who did not select him in the T20 World Cup team. Questions have already been raised on the neglect of this fast bowler and veteran fast bowler Dale Steyn had also expressed surprise and disappointment at Bartman not getting a place in the South African team. Despite this disappointment, Bartman is continuously performing well and has taken the maximum number of 16 wickets in the tournament so far.
Talking about the match, on the basis of Bartman's lethal bowling, Paarl bowled out Pretoria for just 127 runs in 19.1 overs. Then, despite having a bad start, Pretoria achieved this target in just 15.1 overs and won by 6 wickets. For that, Rubin Harman scored the maximum of 46 runs and Dan Lawrence scored 41 runs, while captain David Miller took the team to the target by scoring a quick 28 runs. With this victory, Paarl Royals also secured the first position in the points table.
