It was a good win for Cape Town too: Besides securing themselves one of the final four spots in the competition, it was achieved against a Rygersdal team that on paper was actually the stronger side - despite being the newcomers to the 1A in 2007/08, no fewer than five of the visitors' line-up have played cricket in South Africa at first class level (Charl Willoughby in that number having also played test cricket), with only Dominic Telo in the Cape Town side being of comparable experience.
With the slowish nature of the pitch giving them no help throughout, the speed merchants on both sides were somewhat put to the sword, whereas the spinners and medium-pacers reaped virtually all the success in both tying down and winkling out the opposing batting line-ups. This was evidenced fairly early on, when Cape Town cruised to 55 off their first twelve overs when asked to bat (after losing the toss in what has become almost customary fashion this season). Destroyer-in-chief at this point was Dylan de Beer, who scored a fluent 45 off 53 balls with a six and five fours - mostly through the mid wicket-square leg region and straight down the ground.
However, the introduction of Antonio Mullins's less pacy seamers soon took effect, accounting for de Beer with a slower ball as one of three wickets in five overs that knocked over Cape Town's top order - while conceding just eleven runs from his last seven overs. With the back-up trundlers and spinners no less frugal, it took Cape Town 25 overs to score their next 70 runs. That they managed even that many was largely due to Orin Roesstorff, who survived lives on nought and 16 to hold the middle order together. He eventually fell to the ever-present scoring rate pressure though, which claimed the last five Cape Town wickets in barely seven overs while in reply managing to reach the boundary just once. Alistair Gray's legbreaks were the major beneficiary of this thwarted late charge, picking up three cheap wickets as the tail unsuccessfully sought to get after him.
Left to score a modest 156 for victory, Rygersdal's openers Gray and Matthew Snyman got their team off to a flier, as they too savaged the new ball quickies to the tune of 49 off their combined first nine overs. Gray was particularly clinical with seven boundaries off his first 35 balls, while Snyman maintained a merry run-a-ball pace himself. In a repeat performance of the morning's proceedings though, switching to the gentle medium-pacers of Sean Hendrieck brought immediate dividends, when he had Gray adjudged lbw in his first over while pushing forwards.
Still, Rygersdal continued to progress and had the game all wrapped up at 86 for one in the 18th over, needing just 2.5 an over from then on in with nine wickets in hand. However, Hendrieck then found the edge of Snyman's bat, and once Ryan Maron fell lbw trying to sweep a Matthew Olsen offbreak shortly thereafter, the visitors were left with two new batsmen at the crease. The window of opportunity for Cape Town had thus opened, and the home side jumped in with both feet. Suddenly a stream of lbws and panicky running between the wickets claimed their numbers five to eight batsmen for just a single between them, and within twelve overs a seemingly impregnable 86 for one had been reduced to a teetering 101 for seven.
Still, Rygersdal's veteran captain Kenny Jackson remained - the last major obstacle to a Cape Town victory. Having proved himself to be a very skilled and unrelentingly determined opponent in earlier clashes with his previous club Almar, on this occasion though he seemed strangely disconnected. Presiding over the run out of two partners, he managed to score off just six of the 47 balls that he faced before eventually dragging a delivery from Shane Martin onto his stumps. That left the visitors still requiring 50 off the last eleven overs - with just numbers nine, ten and jack remaining. Avril Cupido hit out bravely to score 26 of the last 31 runs off the bat, but Marc de Beer needed just eleven deliveries to clean up the tail and seal a remarkable victory for a Cape Town side that barely 90 minutes earlier had been dead and buried.
Match photos