Set a challenging 280 to win from a minimum of 75 overs, the home side's second innings received the required solid starting platform as player-coach Wayne Hendricks led the way in putting on 48 for the first wicket in eleven overs. At this point Cape Town was consequently still in the picture to pull off a surprise win, but Nick Dunn's medium-pacers, coupled with moments of poor judgement by the home side, sent four more wickets tumbling over the course of the next hour. At 93 for five, Cape Town's challenge for victory was thus realistically over, and the only question that remained was whether Almar could round off their almost total dominance of the match by completing the outright win.
Certainly one would not have bet against it, as despite cameo innings by Rory O'Brien and Bradley Petersen, the visitors' inclusion for the second day's play of provincial all-rounder Alistair Gray was rapidly proving to be their trump card. Having already kept Almar's second innings on course with an undefeated 63 off 87 balls, he now settled in to a rhythm with his leg breaks that was gradually working its way through the remainder of Cape Town's batting line-up.
Holgate still remained as an immoveable barrier to their ambitions though, displaying infinite levels of patience to thwart everything that the visitors could throw at him. Thus Almar adopted a strategy of conquering through sheer force of numbers, pairing up legspinners Gray and Chris Norman to send down as many deliveries as possible in the hope of thereby maximising their chances of inducing an error. They came perilously close to achieving just that, bowling an incredible 23 overs between them in the last hour. Gray did manage to winkle out two more batsmen in that time, bringing last man Ryan Bekker to the crease for the nerve-wracking final eight minutes of play - with ten fielders clustered around the bat. Unfortunately for the visitors though, a few confident lbw appeals did not go their way, and Holgate's amazing three-hour vigilence that had absorbed no fewer than 205 balls, duly received its just reward.
Having thus at least managed the consolation prize of avoiding defeat in their opening match, Cape Town nevertheless have a lot of thinking to do if they wish to become a competitive force in the Two-Day League this season. Their batting efforts are currently hamstrung by a fragile middle order, coupled with a top order that consistently fails to convert starts into decent scores. In the field, their seamers have yet to display any level of real incisiveness, while the almost complete ineffectiveness of their spin attack in this match forced Cape Town to use their seam bowlers to send down over 85% of their overs on what is a traditionally spin-friendly ground (Almar by contrast used spinners to bowl 50% of their overs) - a fact that played no small role in Cape Town consequently being docked two bonus points for their inability to maintain the required over rate of 17 to the hour.
Earlier, Cape Town had given their hosts carte blanche to set a victory target, after declaring overnight to concede a 97-run first innings deficit. For the third time in three innings the home side's new-ball attack then failed to make early inroads, Kyle Dunn laying the groundwork to ensure that Almar's grip on control of the match's destiny never loosened. Gray then took over to provide the continuity necessary to maintain the visitors' impetus, helped by another quick injection of rapid scoring from skipper Zeke Snyman to set the target some 15 minutes after lunch. As matters turned out however, his declaration proved rather too conservative - with retrospect he would gladly have traded in a good 50 runs of the target set in return for another ten or 15 more overs to bowl at Cape Town.
On the first day, Cape Town had won the toss and inserted their opponents for the second match in succession, only to have the opening batsmen again compile a fifty-run first-wicket partnership instead. The home side may not have had the largest slice of luck ever seen - a few confident appeals were turned down and a fair number of edges flew wide of the close catchers - but with five dropped catches (albeit all fairly awkward ones with the fielders at or around full stretch) they certainly didn't do all that they might have done to aid their own cause.
Indeed, finding your opponents on 135 for one just before lunch could not have been in the game plan after having invited them to bat first, but that is exactly where Cape Town found themselves after Kyle Dunn had done most of the early scoring. An aggressive Steve Adshead then helped him rub salt in the wounds, the pair posting a further 80 runs for the second wicket in barely 20 overs. In the process they badly exposed the home side's lack of an experienced spinner, following the retirement of Donovan Holman and the absence for this match of Matthew Olsen - the two left-arm orthodox spinners that Cape Town did employ conceded 71 wicketless runs in their combined ten overs.
Thus it was left to the pace brigade, Bekker finally obliging with two wickets in his second spell - and then a career-best third with the first ball of his third spell by dismissing Nick Dunn to break another threatening 61-run stand for the fifth wicket. By then Almar skipper Snyman had already enjoyed two lives to reach a 52-ball half-century though, and though no-one really stayed with him for long thereafter, his unstoppable acceleration (scoring 42 off his final 25 balls faced) sent the visitors storming to their joint-highest score against Cape Town in the past twelve seasons. He thus finished on an undefeated 70 (50 of which came in boundaries) from just 65 deliveries, before declaring the innings closed after netting a very healthy five-and-a-bit batting bonus points.
After a somewhat cautious start Cape Town's reply seemed to be taking shape nicely while Mark Ritchie and Marc de Beer were adding 44 together for the second wicket, but a loose shot from de Beer precipitated a collapse to 95 for five. Instrumental in this was Almar's own tweaker Gareth Elliott, who only further underlined the home side's deficiencies in that department by finishing the first day's play as the most successful bowler on view - with four scalps in twelve overs. Before then though, the visitors had to overcome a 58-run sixth wicket stand in twelve overs between the contrasting styles of O'Brien's aggressiveness and Holgate's solidity (the latter reaching 1 500 runs for the First XI in his 50th appearance for them). The home side were thus just appearing to be getting back on an even keel at 153 for five - until loose strokes again handed Almar another three quick wickets in the space of 15 minutes.
Match photos