Chad Laycock has become just the fourth player in T20 history to take five wickets in a single over.
KZN Tuskers allrounder Chad Laycock picked up five wickets in an over in a CSA Pro20 match against the Titans in Pietermaritzburg on Tuesday. Picture: Darren Stewart/Gallo Images
An amazing bowling performance from young KZN Tuskers (Inland) allrounder Chad Laycock wasn’t enough to save his team from a 21-run defeat to the dominant Titans in their CSA Pro20 Cup match at the Pietermaritzburg Oval on Tuesday afternoon.
Laycock became just the fourth player ever to pick up five wickets in one over in a T20 match, on his way to career best figures of 6/26 in his four overs, as he helped his side restrict the incredible Titans batting lineup to 204 all out in 19.5 overs.
The Titans were cruising on 193/4 after 18 overs and looking on course for a score well in excess of 200, but Laycock put paid to those chances when he came on to bowl the penultimate over, with his figures at the time 1/24 off three overs.
He started his final over by knocking Leus du Plooy’s off stump out the ground, before Dayyaan Galiem hit a two off the second ball.
Laycock then followed that up with four wickets in a row, as Galiem was caught at long-off, Apiwe Mnyanda had his middle stump knocked over, while Janco Smit and Esosa Aihevba both had their off stumps flattened, in an incredible over.
Watch the carnage from the one hour 44 minute mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKoy0YXRUe0&t=13465s
In the end, the Titans score was largely down to their top three after Lhuan-dre Pretorius continued his amazing form with 81 off 36 balls (11×4; 3×6), fellow opener Sinethemba Qeshile hit 46 off 29 (7×4), and Dewald Brevis hit 33 off 24 (1×4; 2×6).
More a batter
What made the performance of Laycock all the more impressive is the young 23-year-old seems to be more of a batter than a bowler, usually batting in the middle order.
Before this match, in 15 previous T20s, Laycock had bowled just 54 balls (nine overs) over four innings picking up just two wickets while conceding 83 runs.
Despite his brilliant effort, the Tuskers fell short of chasing down the target, finishing on 183/6, with Michael Erlank top scoring with 56 off 33 balls (3×4; 4×6), while Laycock chipped in with an unbeaten 31 off 25 (3×4).
The only other bowlers to have taken five wickets in one over in T20 cricket are Al-Amin Hossain in a Bangladesh T20 league match in 2013, Abhimanyu Mithun in an Indian T20 league match in 2019 and Gede Priandana for Indonesia in an international T20 against Cambodia last year.
South African-born New Zealand international Neil Wagner has also picked up five wickets in an over, but in a NZ first class match in 2011, while SA-born Irish international Curtis Campher is the only player to have picked up five wickets in five balls, in an Irish T20 game for Munster Reds against North West Warriors last year, but did it over two overs, picking up two wickets at the end of one and three at the start of his next.
