Northerns-Goodwood had been chasing a relatively stiff 219 to win off a minimum of 47 overs. As he had also done in the first innings, Derick Brandt again got them off to a flier in racing to 31 off his first 33 balls faced, and with fellow opener Davey Herbert providing decent support from the other end too, the visitors' run chase was given an ideal start at 49 without loss after just eleven overs.
Some loose strokes unsettled matters somewhat thereafter, but Werner Moolman kept his side moving forwards until 15 overs of spin in tandem from Wayne Hendricks and Matthew Olsen progressively stretched the asking rate to beyond eight an over, while at the same time reducing them from a healthy 80 for two to a wobbly 130 for six - effectively ending Northerns-Goodwood's victory hopes.
Still, as long as a freely-scoring Jahne Rudman remained, the visitors still had an outside chance. That ended with the late introduction of Olwagen's seamers though, as he picked up two wickets in his first over to put the matter beyond doubt. Eventually it came down to whether or not numbers ten and eleven could survive the final 25 minutes of play, and by successfully keeping Cape Town's spin twins at bay they were increasingly looking like they would do it too - until Olwagen produced the magical delivery that mattered.
Earlier, Cape Town was indebted to some solid middle order batting - led by a maiden half-century from Luke Petersen - to push the victory target to as high as it was. Morne Heyneke had previously broken through their top order for the second time in the match to reduce their second innings to a worrying 44 for four, but another typically agggressive innings from Rory O'Brien found solid support from Neil McLellan to add 64 valuable runs for the fifth wicket. They both fell within four balls of each other though, leaving the home side with much still to do at 108 for six - only 111 ahead with 94 overs still left for play.
As in the first innings though, Petersen and debutant Byron van der Merwe were again the men for the job. Once more they stood firm to frustrate Northerns-Goodwood, adding 63 for the seventh wicket to move Cape Town out of danger, despite the bowling efforts of Brandt and Errol Rossouw. Then Olsen waded in with a quick-fire cameo at the end, and the home side thus passed 200 in their second innings for only the second time in their last nine matches to ensure a defendable target.
On the first day, Cape Town's skipper Jonathan Holgate had won his third toss out of three and elected to bat first in seamer-friendly conditions - inserting the opposition on the previous two occasions had had little effect. The home side's opening batsmen consequently struggled against a new ball that darted around significantly, and once Heyneke eventually broke through after half an hour with a double strike, Cape Town quickly slumped to 29 for three.
Hendricks had managed to battle his way successfully through the torrid first hour though, and found far more fluent support from O'Brien to begin repairing matters somewhat. In what would become a pattern for Cape Town throughout the match though, just when they seemed to be stabilising things, both fell in quick succession. With Hannes Schoeman picking up two wickets with his medium-pacers within his first 20 deliveries, the home side consequently slid to 91 for six.
That combined the youngsters Petersen and van der Merwe for the first time, and for the next hour they defied anything that Northerns-Goodwood could throw at them. Shortly after registering their fifty partnership though, Teri Ross got the breakthrough, and partnered by the off breaks of Brandt (who started both innings keeping wicket), the two polished off the home side's last four wickets in as many overs.
The visitors' response was also patchy though, with three of the top four falling cheaply as Leseuer Keyser and Olwagen shared their scalps between them - but not before Brandt had brusquely but all too briefly savaged Cape Town's new ball bowlers - capitalising on some loose deliveries to smash a six and five fours in racing to 30 off his first 20 balls faced.
At 66 for four the destiny of the innings was up for grabs though, and Rudman and his captain Marcel le Roux claimed it for Northerns-Goodwood by adding 52 at virtually a-run-a-ball. Le Roux was as dominant as Brandt (but stayed long enough to reach a 45-ball half-century with the sixth of his eight fours, to go with three previous sixes), until the pairing of Hendricks's slow left-armers and Olsen's off breaks put Cape Town's spin nightmare of the previous match behind them - rolling the rest of the visitors' batting line-up by sharing the last six wickets evenly between them over the next 18 overs.
Match photo's & CTCC Player Wagonwheels / Ball Maps