Although heavily reliant on a career-best 82 off just 98 balls from Marc de Beer, the home side had nevertheless remained in touch with the asking rate of 4.1 an over for much of their second innings. An over prior to the start of the final hour's play they were consequently still relatively handily placed, needing 83 off 17 overs with seven wickets in hand.
However, with the field long since spread and the home side having being largely restricted to three or four singles an over for most of the previous hour, the asking rate was slowly but surely climbing out of reach. Attempting to address this, the wheels of Cape Town's run chase came off at this point. Run outs in two successive overs bowled from the Cemetery end eliminated the upper middle order, and once visiting captain Gio Colussi dismissed de Beer as the first of three wickets in the space of 15 balls, the home side was obliged to abandon the chase. With captain Damian Thornton standing firm for the second time in the match, they thus negotiated the final seven overs to the safety of yet another draw.
Earlier, the Western Province second innings had been built almost entirely around an 118-run third wicket stand between Nick Compton and James Kuiper. Having witnessed their initial potential position of strength whittled down to a position of virtual first innings parity, the visitors' second innings was wobbling somewhat at 38 for two when Andy Northcote holed out to short cover. However, Kuiper carefully batted out the remaining half-hour to lunch to ensure no further damage, while Compton crashed two sixes and two fours in the same period to hint at what was to come after the break.
Kuiper suddenly found his touch when play resumed, and with Compton continuing his imperious domination of the bowling, the pair took total control of proceedings to score at will. Having narrowly missed out on a fifty in his rather more defensively-orientated first innings effort, Compton got there second time around off just 64 balls, while Kuiper's third six took him passed this personal milestone as well. In tandem they reduced the home side's attack to impotence, their final 13 overs together bringing 82 runs before Compton threw away a certain century by attempting a sharp single to de Beer in his follow-through that was so audacious that it bordered on batting suicide.
Kuiper fell two balls later to Luke Petersen, part of an impressive display of controlled seam bowling from the youngster who returned to the team from Under-19 commitments after Richard Lotter had stood in for him on the first day. In partnership with de Beer's equally effective seamers from the other end, the pair made short shrift of the remaining WPCC batting, knocking over the last seven wickets for just 41 runs in barely ten overs - helped by two further suicidal run outs. The collapse gave Cape Town a chance of victory with 209 needed off 51 overs, but ultimately it was not to be.
On the first day Cape Town lost the toss for the seventh match running, giving the visitors first use of the favourable batting conditions. WPCC openers Derrin Bassage and Northcote consequently enjoyed themselves for the first hour-and-a-half while cruising to 82 without loss, as barely a ball beat the bat after the first 30 minutes. It thus came as somewhat of a surprise when Northcote fell, but Bassage and Compton shrugged off his loss to take the visitors to 128 at lunch without further loss.
By then Bassage had reached his half-century, and as he stepped up his pace thereafter it seemed as if a hundred was his for the taking. However, he edged a big pull shot at Clive Gie onto his stumps on 69, finally giving the home side the opportunity of attacking a new batsman. Gie was more than up to the task, and in a marathon 14-over spell after the lunch interval he claimed six for 55 - together with a run out off his bowling all of them falling in succession. That included ending the longstanding resistance of Compton, when he finally lost patience and miscued to deep mid wicket, as Cape Town fought back to reduce WPCC from 135 for one to 200 for eight.
Ryan van Niekerk remained to spoil the home side's party somewhat though, blasting a lofted drive through long on's hands to commence a counterattack that smashed 21 off two overs. He dominated a ninth-wicket stand of 41 in under five overs, before being left undefeated on 32 off just 18 balls when the declaration came once Gie was finally given a rest after completing his career-best figures on his home pitch, and his replacement de Beer broke the stand in his first over.
Facing a daunting total of 241 for nine, it was imperative that Cape Town's reply had to start well if they hoped to stay in contention. Dylan de Beer immediately signalled his intentions of ensuring this with seven off the first over, and he had cruised to 21 off 17 balls when a silly run out broke the opening partnership on 40. That brought Mark Ritchie to the crease though, and for the next hour-and-a-half he and de Beer put together a 64-run stand that put the home side firmly back in the picture.
With Ritchie taking most of the strike during the second half of their stand though, and being unable to match de Beer's fluency, the latter grew increasingly frustrated and eventually skied a big sweep shot to the 'keeper. When Ritchie thus holed out in the next over to a rank full toss, WPCC suddenly had the chance of breaking through - and van Niekerk exploited the opportunity with two further wickets in the space of ten balls.
Finding themselves wobbling at 129 for five, it seemed like another all-too-familiar end of the day collapse was looming - undoing all of Cape Town's good work and leaving a large first innings deficit that would knock them out of the match. With dark clouds gathering and spinners bowling in tandem though, Thornton counterattacked with sixes in successive overs. Rory O'Brien provided his captain with solid support, the pair adding an unbroken 44 for the sixth wicket by the close and extending that on the second morning to an 81-run stand.
Van Niekerk eventually got the breakthrough with another two quick wickets as Cape Town chased quick runs for batting bonus points, but O'Brien's second-best career score and Thornton's unbeaten 40 with three sixes meant that the home side closed to within just nine runs of WPCC's big first innings total before declaring.
Match photos