Who is Ottniel Baartman, Second South African Pacer To Bag SA20 Hat-trick For Paarl Royals?

Paarl Royals registered a brilliant win over Pretoria Capitals in their SA20 2025-26 match on Thursday, January 15 at SuperSport Park, Centurion on the back of Ottniel Baartman's sensational hat-trick.

Capitals were restricted to 127 in their first innings with Baartman being the main culprit for their downfall. The pacer bowled four overs and conceded 16 runs and scalping five wickets as well.

He dismissed Andre Russell, Lizaad Williams and Lungi Ngidi on the first three balls of the 19th over and thus became the 2nd player in SA20 history to register a hat-trick. Moreover, he is also the first Paarls Royal player to do so.

Who Is Ottneil Baartman?

Baartman hails from Oudtshoorn, a town in the South African province of West Cape. Baartman's mother wanted her son to focus on academics but the Protea's love for the game, made him fall in love with the sport.

Baartman moved to Bloemfontein and stayed there for three years with the Knights. However, the team did not offer a new contract to the bowler who then switched sides to the Dolphins, for the following domestic season.

The move saw him scalp 11 wickets in the CSA Provincial T20 Cup. At the CSA 2022-23 T20 Challenge, Baartman took 15 wickets at an average of 14.40, becoming the second-most wicket-taker that year.

His domestic performance did not go unnoticed as South Africa national team came calling. He received his maiden Test call-up in 2021 for two-Test series against Pakistan.

In their recent T20I series against India, Baartman took four wickets against the hosts, becoming the second Proteas bowler to claim four-fer against the Men In Blue in T20I cricket. He finished with figures of 4/24 as they won the second T20I with ease in Mullanpur.

Steyn 'Cheeky Dig' At SA Selectors

Steyn took to X (formerly Twitter) with the caption 'I'm done' with a clown emoji, to take a sly dig at the South Africa selectors after the bowler's hat-trick in the SA20 match. The 32-year-old pacer's exclusion from the T20 World Cup 2026 squad was criticised by Steyn.

"We really need to start looking at Baartman as one of SA's best white ball bowlers. He's the highest wicket taker in SA20, won the league twice and made a final, let me remind you, that's a comp that has 4 INTERNATIONAL players (often batters) plus all the PROTEAS! He's number 1. Thats (sic) TOP quality, but he'll be sitting home for this years 20/20 WC," the former South African cricketer had formerly wrote on X.