Another comprehensive middle order collapse, followed by the dismantling of their bowling attack in an innings from Claremont’s Western Province provincial captain Daniel Smith that was as brutal as it was clinical, doomed Cape Town to a heavy defeat at the RJE Burt Oval in Constantia, the home side ultimately romping to victory with a full 20 overs to spare.
There was no sign of the drubbing that was to follow initially though, as having asked their guests to bat first, Claremont then conceded 44 runs in four overs inside the opening 20 minutes. Visiting openers Tristan Coetzee and Jamie Marillier climbed into the new-ball attack with gusto, and by the end of over eight they had already struck eleven fours in charging to 62-0. Claremont’s decision to field first was looking decidedly questionable as a result, but then in off-spinner Cedric Landers’s first over, Coetzee popped one up to the keeper off his pad to fall for 41 from 30 balls, and Marillier followed him back to the changeroom three balls later without further addition to the total.
With the match thereby effectively reset with two new batters at the crease, the middle overs became something of an arm wrestle – the boundaries dried up almost completely, and the home team spinners got down to work. Slowly but surely Landers and his leg-spinning captain Josh Breed worked their way through the Cape Town line-up, with Landers playing a double role when not bowling to snaffle three consecutive slip catches off Breed. Thus, once Keegan Fortune’s left-arm medium-pace also made a late entry into the attack in the 29th over, to strike with successive deliveries in his first over, Cape Town had collapsed from 95-2 to 137-8 in twelve overs – and the match had been given a radically different complexion.
Still, once Breed’s remaining overs had been played out, and with the remainder of the home team’s attack appearing more manageable, there was still some fightback left in the Cape Town tail. Justin Gilliland in company with Alex Draai saw the visitors through to the second drinks break, and then set about repairing what damage they could in extending their ninth-wicket partnership to 47 over the next half-hour or so. Entering the final ten overs at 181-8 as a result, a decent total still seemed on the cards – until Gilliland holed out on the long off boundary in the next over, leaving just Draai to get what more he could. He hadn’t done a bad job up until then either, striking a six and two fours in his career-best score for Cape Town, but Claremont duly wrapped up the innings with four overs still in hand to leave themselves a realistic victory target of 201.
Still, a home team win was not a foregone conclusion – in limited overs matches played over the past 29 seasons up until then, Cape Town had failed just ten times out of 56 to successfully defend a 200-plus total. And indeed, it looked like game on when they subsequently dismissed both Claremont openers cheaply well within the initial ten-over Powerplay. But that proved to be the pinnacle of Cape Town’s progress on this particular occasion.
Having just arrived at the crease, Smith promptly deposited his first ball faced onto a car parked some 25 metres beyond the boundary rope, and then worked the next ball through mid wicket for four more. This was just the precursor to the astounding destruction of a bowling attack without the least bit of effort though, as three more fours flowed off his bat in the 13th over, and three more in the over after that too. By this point Smith had flown to 47 from just 27 balls faced, raising the fifty partnership with his captain Breed (who himself had needed to contribute just four singles and a three) from just 39 balls.
A drinks break at this juncture might have given the visitors the opportunity to regroup and try another approach, but instead it just gave Smith the breather he needed to redouble his efforts. Another six in the first over after the interval took him to a 34-ball fifty, and four overs later he was already on 82 – with the hundred partnership having been posted from 78 balls (Breed’s share being 16 of them). Five bowling changes in five overs from the top end made no difference in staunching the gush of runs, and having reached a 70-ball century, Smith celebrated by hitting the next two balls for six as well – as the 150-run partnership was completed inside 19 overs together, leaving just 30 more runs needed from 24 overs.
By this stage Breed was also getting in on the act, striking two fours and a six in quick succession to reach his own fifty from 56 balls. There could be no escape for Cape Town, and with the white flag being raised as Josh Chippendale was brought on to bowl his first over for Cape Town, the end came rather anticlimactically when a no-ball provided the winning run. It left Smith on a triumphant unbeaten 126 from just 87 balls, including six sixes and nine fours, while his unbroken 182-run stand off just 140 deliveries with Breed represented Claremont’s highest partnership for any wicket against Cape Town in the past 29 seasons – eclipsing the 156 added for the first wicket the season before by Zahier Lorgat and George Hargrave.
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