Arriving at the crease only in the 37th of the allotted 45 overs, with the home side having achieved a comfortable if not exactly earth-shattering run rate of 4.1 an over up to that point, O'Brien took just two singles off his first six balls before cutting loose with the first of what would be six sixes from his blade.  Thereafter he missed scoring from just six of the remaining 25 balls that he faced, while blazing 53 further runs from them - all but two being in the arc between square leg and wide long off.  Hitting three sixes in the space of four balls at one point, O'Brien consequently raced to a 28-ball half-century - the fastest managed by any Cape Town Cricket Club First XI player in the past twelve seasons - as he gave a textbook demonstration in the use of the lofted straight drive.  Thus Cape Town crashed 77 from the last seven overs of their innings, all scored in company with debutant Darren Rolfe who turned the strike over to O'Brien in admirable fashion to achieve a healthy strike rate of his own.

Earlier the home side had volunteered to bat first in order to get play underway at the scheduled starting time, after Kuils River's doubts about a wet spot on the pitch was threatening to cause a delayed start.  Upon subsequently finding themselves at 25 for two in the seventh over, the wisdom of that decision initially looked a little suspect.  However, once Byron van der Merwe had survived an edge to slip soon thereafter, he and his captain for the day Marc de Beer stabilised matters with a 54-run third-wicket stand compiled in just eleven overs.  Van der Merwe went on to score a maiden fifty for the First XI, but was the first of four wickets to fall in the space of ten overs as the visitors' spinners Aldo Jantjies and Sheldon Adams dominated the middle overs of the innings.  Luke Petersen kept matters ticking over in the middle order after a scratchy start though, before handing over the stage to O'Brien for his masterful performance.

Petersen was again on hand to capture a wicket in each of his first two overs once the Kuils River response got underway, bringing Jantjies and his captain Stanton Marinus together.  After spending two overs playing themselves in, the pair then set about chasing their daunting target with aplomb.  Over the next six overs they thus registered their fifty partnership together, striking seven boundaries between them on the way, to which were added two sixes and two more fours over the course of the next seven overs as well.  Marinus brought up his personal fifty from 56 balls in the same over in which he raised the hundred-run stand between the two, while Jantjies reached his own 68-ball half-century in the following over.

Well as the pair had been going up until then though, as had happened toCape Town as well, the middle third of the innings witnessed a marked drop in the scoring rate as the slower bowlers proved difficult to get away.  Thus the 22nd to 32nd overs brought these two well-set batsmen a mere 30 runs with but a single four, sending the asking rate skyrocketing from an already challenging 5.3 per over before then up to a near-impossible 7.5 from each of the remaining 13 overs.  Even though the visitors still had eight wickets in hand, one couldn't help feeling that something had to give sooner rather than later - though it was part-time off-spinner Dominic Telo that brought the breakthrough at that point in unlikely fashion, Jantjies tamely swinging a long hop straight at backward square leg.

Once the Jantjies-Marinus third-wicket stand had finally been broken, matters came to a head rather rapidly indeed - Kuils River's last seven wickets tumbled in the space of as many overs in fruitless attempts to address the spiralling required run rate.  Brought on to bowl for the first time in Cape Town First XI colours, part-time leg spinner Neil McLellan had the misfortune of seeing a catch dropped off his very first delivery.  However, he duly got his first scalp in that same over, and followed this up with one more in each of the next two overs as well.  De Beer's simultaneous reintroduction of himself into the attack at the other end was even more productive from a wicket-taking point of view; bowling full and straight, he castled a further batsman in each of his second and third overs - before knocking over the last two in the space of three balls to seal an ultimately-comfortable 59-run win for his team.

Photo's & Wagonwheels / Pitch Maps