Having gone toe-to-toe with current champions Durbanville the day before in a tight, drawn-out contest that they could just as easily have won, Cape Town went into their second match in the T20 competition against fellow strugglers last season Brackenfell with a realistic sense of optimism that this time they would prevail. Ultimately, however, they were blown away – and effectively eliminated from the competition – by a masterclass innings from their opponents’ Gloucestershire import Chris Dent, who almost single-handedly overhauled their modest total to hand Brackenfell a comprehensive victory with an embarrassment of time, wickets and overs to spare.
Played on another rather small venue, the Rondebosch Oval “B” field, but under sunny skies at least, Cape Town nevertheless had the worst of the conditions – sent in to bat on a still-unused pitch that after the previous day’s rain had something to offer the seamers. As such they were never in command of their own destiny – losing a wicket in the first over of the match, and thereafter unable to wrest back the initiative from an effective seam attack that harried them relentlessly. After left-arm seamer Brandon Viret’s early strike, his new-ball partner Philip Kleynhans struck in each of two successive overs himself, and Cape Town could eventually only limp to 29-3 by the conclusion of the first six-over PowerPlay.
Dewald Botha at least subsequently provided a bit of revenge, pouncing on an abortive attempt to introduce spin into proceedings by personally helping himself to 28 runs from the three overs’ worth of deliveries that he received from them. However, all the while the seamers continued making inroads at the other end, such that when Viret returned to winkle out Botha as well, Cape Town were left reeling at 100-6, despite having landed four sixes by then. No recovery would be allowed either, as Ruan Vlok’s medium-pacers combined with Etienne Jewel’s livelier seam offerings to keep matters well in check, restricting Cape Town to a moderate 123-9 from their 20 overs.
Still, given the way that they had struggled against seam, there was a reasonable belief that they could still successfully defend that total with their own battery of available seamers. Sadly, those hopes were quickly and brutally crushed by Dent’s calculated onslaught on a pitch that was already beginning to ease. Still, Cape Town failed to use what was still on offer by bowling too short, and Dent merrily helped himself to a six and five fours off the first two overs alone – leaving the Plumstead-based outfit floundering for options. Matthew Olsen did manage to pull a little something back for the spin brigade, but with the fifty partnership for the opening wicket raised within the first PowerPlay (Dent’s share being 39 of the 50), Cape Town just had too few runs on the board to recover from such a rollicking start.
There would be one more wicket to fall from the other end, again to spin, but by the time that Olsen had hustled through his spell to suffer comparatively minor damage under the circumstances, Dent had cruised to a 35-ball fifty and Brackenfell needed barely 40 from ten overs. He wasted no time finishing that task either, blazing three sixes (including some colossal blows that left no doubt the instant the balls left the bat that they would never be seen again) and three fours off the next three overs to hurry Brackenfell to a bonus-point win with indecent haste: ending with a full seven overs still unused, and himself on 89* from just 47 balls, with six sixes and ten fours. It had been the kind of innings that Cape Town could do nothing about except philosophically accept – and be glad that they at least weren’t fielding first.
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