Chad Laycock took five wickets in a single over for KwaZulu-Natal Inland against the Momentum Multiply Titans in the Pro20 Cup on 13 October 2026, the first time a South African has done it in men’s T20 cricket.
He finished with 6/26 from four overs. ESPNcricinfo reports those as the best figures in the history of the competition, past the 6/29 Beuran Hendricks took in 2014.
A Batter Who Hardly Ever Got The Ball
Laycock is a right-hand top-order batter who bowls a bit of right-arm medium pace and some off-spin. In his first 15 T20 matches he was given 54 deliveries with the ball. Nine overs, spread across four innings, for two wickets and 83 runs.
That is not a bowler’s workload. It is what a captain hands a batting all-rounder when the plan has already come apart or the matchup happens to suit.
He is 23, born in Port Shepstone and schooled at Glenwood College in Durban, and he came up through KwaZulu-Natal age-group cricket from Under-15 level. The Dolphins Cubs and Colts years were built on his batting, including 247 runs at 123.50 for the Cubs in 2022 and 456 runs at 45.60 for the Colts in 2023.
The club stints abroad say the same thing. At 16 he spent eight weeks with Railway Union in Ireland and made 341 runs, and in 2024 he scored 388 for Brondesbury in the Middlesex County Cricket League before coming home for pre-season.
He signed his first professional contract with KZN Inland ahead of the 2024/25 season and made his senior T20 debut for the Kaneez Tuskers in November 2024. His first-class best is 108 not out and his List A best is 99 not out, both with the bat.
Three overs into this match he had the figures of a part-timer having a decent day: 1/24, the wicket being Lhuan-dre Pretorius in the ninth over.
Chad Laycock’s 19th Over At The Pro20 Cup
The Titans were 193/4 after 18 overs and set for well over 200. Pretorius and Sinethemba Qeshile had opened with a stand of 112, Pretorius making 81 off 36 and Qeshile 46, and Dewald Brevis had added 33.
Then Laycock was given the 19th.
- Leus du Plooy, bowled, off stump
- Two runs to Dayyaan Galiem
- Dayyaan Galiem, caught in the deep
- Aphiwe Mnyanda, bowled, middle stump
- Janco Smit, bowled, off stump
- Esosa Aihevba, bowled, off stump
Five wickets in six balls for two runs. Four of them came in four consecutive deliveries, which is also a first in South African T20 cricket, and four of the five were bowled.
The Titans went from 193/4 to 195/9 inside that over. They were all out for 204 five balls into the next one.
How Rare Is A Five-Wicket Over In Men’s T20 Cricket?
Rare enough that the full list of men who have done it still fits in a paragraph. According to ESPNcricinfo, Laycock is the fourth bowler to take five wickets in an over in men’s T20 cricket anywhere in the world.
Al-Amin Hossain did it for a UCB-BCB XI against Abahani Limited in the Victory Day T20 Cup in 2013/14, taking 5/17. Abhimanyu Mithun did it for Karnataka against Haryana in a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy semi-final in 2019/20, taking 5/39. Gede Priandana did it for Indonesia against Cambodia in December 2025, taking 5/1, the only instance so far in a T20 International.
Laycock is the first South African on that list, and the only one of the four who was not picked in his side as a bowler.
The Pro20 Cup is Cricket South Africa’s domestic T20 competition, the one where provincial sides like KZN Inland meet full franchise outfits like the Titans, so the record he broke belongs to the country’s own first-class system rather than to a franchise league.
The Titans Still Won By 21 Runs
None of it won KZN Inland the match. Chasing 205, they were held to 183/6, with Michael Erlank making 56 off 33 and Jack Lees 34.
Laycock finished 31 not out off 25 balls with three fours, at the crease when the runs ran out, doing the job he was actually selected to do.
The Titans took the 21-run win, extended their unbeaten run to six matches and stayed top of Pool A.
For Laycock it leaves an odd line in the record books. Sixteen T20 matches, 217 runs, eight wickets, and six of those eight wickets taken in one four-over spell at the City Oval.
