CAPE TOWN 157-9 (Lucien Simpson 3-33) lost to ALMAR 159-4 (Kenny Jackson 57*, Nick Dunn 35) by six wickets

Almar was in total control of this fixture throughout, and duly cruised to an easy six-wicket victory with a full ten overs still in hand.  The defeat left Cape Town still searching for its first limited overs victory over Almar for the past nine seasons, giving the Rondebosch-based side the best record against Cape Town in this competition of any of the 20 opponents that they have encountered during this period.

For Almar, though, the victory was sweeter still.  With Primrose, their only other rival for Pool winner, somehow contriving to allow Western Province Cricket Club's last two wickets to score the remaining 45 runs needed to beat them, Almar tied with the University of the Western Cape for the top spot in Pool 1 - and qualified for the Final by virtue of having beaten them in their round robin match.

Electing to bat first, Cape Town could make little headway on a slow pitch that bogged them down completely.  Just about everyone made a start, but with no-one able to dominate the bowling the innings never gathered momentum.  It consequently became a gritty drawn-out affair, though still punctuated by regular wickets - only one partnership made it to the half-hour mark.  With the bowlers dictating matters, the overall run rate failed to reach three to the over once between the 17th and 48th overs.  The wickets were also evenly spread, with left-arm quickie Lucien Simpson recording the best figures by taking advantage of being the only bowler to get a second spell.

Chasing a very moderate asking rate Almar were never under pressure run rate-wise, and maintained the required tempo throughout.  Still, when Cape Town had dismissed both openers with the total still on 40, they gave themselves a glimmer of hope to yet break through.  However, home team captain Kenny Jackson and Nick Dunn firmly slammed that door shut, adding 50 for the third wicket to remove any doubt about the eventual outcome.  Though Dunn ultimately holed out tamely to mid off, Jackson was in no mood to give anything away, and reached his fifty off 79 balls in the over before he clinched the winning runs by cover-driving his seventh boundary.