Having lost both of their T20 matches on the new season’s opening weekend the week before, the First XI’s 2022/23 season showed no signs of improvement as it now moved into the 50-over league format. If anything, matters seemed to be getting worse, as they were comprehensively outplayed on home soil by Western Province CC, ending a six-match winning streak over them that had lasted a month shy of four years.
The visitors had again enjoyed the best of the conditions after winning the toss, and their skipper Derek Mitchell put it to good use. Taking advantage of the abortive experiment of opening with spin at one end, he hit two consecutive sixes in just the fourth over of the match to give his side a rollicking start. A fourth six took him to a 49-ball fifty an hour later, and it came as somewhat of a surprise when he cut the first delivery after the drinks break straight to backward point.
However, by then Givon Christian was already well-settled at the crease, having just added 50 for the second wicket with his captain, and although his innings was altogether more workmanlike, it was just as effective – particularly once he joined forces with the fluent Justin Broad. Two consecutive pulled fours off Darren Rolfe took Christian to his own half-century from 88 balls faced, but the seamer would have his revenge in his next over when Christian holed out to deep mid wicket – giving Rolfe his 350th scalp of his 14-season First XI career.
By then though, Western Province had entered the final ten-over PowerPlay well poised for a big finish at 162-4, with Broad still going well. He duly reached his own fifty with his fifth four shortly thereafter, making it only the second time in the First XI’s 165 Limited Overs matches contested over the past 25 seasons, that three different batters had reached 50 in the same innings (following the rock-solid effort by the University of Pretoria’s top order, en route to winning the 2014 National Club Championships).
Still, once Broad had fallen and Nicholas Scott had also nipped out a second scalp of his own, the home side were threatening in the closing overs to restrict their guests to a rather more moderate total than had always seemed on the cards. It was not to be however, as Jordan Woolf led a rousing WPCC finish that crashed five sixes while taking 40 off the last two overs, and suddenly Cape Town were left facing a daunting 238 for victory.
It ultimately mattered little though, as the home side’s run chase never got off the ground. By the end of the initial ten-over PowerPlay their top three were all back in the hut, and with both visiting new-ball bowlers Kyle Klein and Luke Petersen picking up a brace of scalps while conceding just 2½ runs an over in return, Cape Town laboured their way to 32-4 from the first 13 overs.
There was to be no respite either, as leg-spinner Justin Behrens then settled in to dominate the second half of the batting line-up. Dropped on 10*, Nathan Schultz dug in to offer the home side’s sole resistance, relishing one brief moment of retribution when he carted three fours in an over on his way to the highest score of his brief First XI career to date. However, that little retaliatory feat was achieved from a position of 63-7 already, as Behrens had begun his task of working through the batting at the other end. And so it was to continue, the leg-spinner enjoying things pretty much all his own way in claiming five of the last six wickets – the last four coming in as many overs at a personal cost of just ten runs – the five-for being completed off the final delivery of his allotted ten overs, to finish off what was ultimately a rather one-sided contest as Cape Town collapsed to their lowest Limited Overs score against Western Province CC in 25 seasons. There was an even worse post-script to follow too, as they lost the services of the experienced Kyle Schreuder with a torn hamstring suffered while fielding as well.
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