This was due to a remarkable come-back by Glamorgan on the second day, led by the combination of the batting pair of Randall Roberts and Rodney Brown (with a century and a half-century respectively), and the spin bowling pair of Faiz Kippie and Riedewaan Williams (who between them shared 16 of the 18 Cape Town wickets to fall). This enabled the home side in their second turn at the crease to more than triple their rather disasterous first innings batting effort, as well as converting a potentially fatal first innings deficit into a lead of almost triple its size.
Matters had seemed well on track for an expected Cape Town victory some 15 minutes into the second day's play, with the home side still trailing by 56 runs on a tricky batting surface with one second-innings wicket already down and heavy overcast conditions promising to help the visitors' seamers run through the rest of the batting - possibly even more easily than they had done on the first day. However, as sharp as Cape Town's catching had been on Day One, so poor was it on Day Two. Six catches were put down in the Glamorgan second innings, half of them offered by Roberts alone before he had reached 40! He never looked back thereafter, grinding down the visitors' attack to reach his fifty in two hours, and ultimately his hundred in 3½ hours. Joined by the equally solid Brown, who himself reached fifty off a full 122 balls, the pair batted out virtually the entire morning session to take Glamorgan to a comfortable 120 for one at lunch - and with it claiming the initiative in the game.
Whereas four bowlers had been more than sufficient for Cape Town to run through the home side's batting on the first day, by lunch on Day Two they had used fully twice that number without achieving any subsequent success. After the interval though, as the home side took the offensive as the team now pushing for victory, the visitors found wickets somewhat more forthcoming. Matthew Olsen was beneficiary-in-chief of the attacking approach, finally breaking the 129-run second wicket stand between Roberts and Brown by inducing the first of four catches to mid wicket from an ongoing series of attacking strokes. Nevertheless, a whirlwind 31 not out from 21 balls from Brinley Barros at the end ensured that Glamorgan never lost their momentum, and they were thus finally able to set Cape Town a daunting 180 to win from 43 overs.
Unlike on the first evening though, the home side this time around didn't wait until the 30th over of the innings before introducing their ace bowling pair of Kippie and Williams in tandem - by the 12th over they were both in operation, and remained that way for all but one of the remaining overs. With Cape Town still searching for the correct recipe by which to conduct an organised run chase, a flurry of shots from the top order meant that it didn't take the two spinners long to begin working their way through the visitors' batting line-up, as they had done on the first evening. Thus, at 63 for four with just 20 overs remaining, the Plumstead-based outfit's challenge seemed spent.
However, Francois Vermaak had stood firm throughout - almost too much so, as it took him 82 balls to reach double figures. Once joined by fellow debutant Kirk Wernars for the final hour or so of play though, the pair renewed the visitors' push for achieving the target. Suddenly playing almost a shot a ball, they added 49 together in ten overs as the home side's fielding displayed its own fallibility in fluffing a host of chances offered. The odds were never in the batting side's favour though, and as the rate required climbed steadily to beyond seven to the over, both holed out to Kippie in successive overs. Williams also claimed two in four deliveries as the Cape Town lower middle order continued to flail the bat despite the apparent hopelessness of the cause, bringing last man Leseuer Keyser to the crease with 4½ overs still left for play. Fortunately for the visitors he possesses a solid defence though, and a calm enough temperament to know when to use it. The last wicket pair consequently had surprisingly few dramas in blocking out the last remaining deliveries, to at least deny Glamorgan what would have been a stunning come-from-behind victory.
On the first day Cape Town had for once lost the toss, Glamorgan opting for first use of the pitch. However, they found themselves well and truly pinned down from the outset by the visitors' opening bowlers, and when Keyser took the first wicket in the ninth over, they had but twelve runs on the board. Keyser continued with metronomic accuracy, picking up the scalp of the other opening bat as well in a ten-over spell in which he conceded just a single scoring stroke throughout! Thus, when fellow opening bowler Andre Olwagen returned for his second spell and promptly grabbed two quick wickets as well, the home side were left floundering at 32 for five in the 27th over.
The Glamorgan middle order managed to regroup somewhat and crystallise some resistance, but a long 23-over spell of Marc de Beer's nagging medium-pacers prevented them from ever getting on top, and eventually he succeeded in dislodging them as well. Thus it was left to Olsen's off breaks merely to clean up the tail, which he accomplished with three wickets in 18 balls to close the innings on a miserable 81 all out. It was a fine bowling effort by Cape Town, backed up by some excellent catching.
With their backs thus firmly against the wall, Glamorgan's bowlers responded in their own turn to ensure that the visitors didn't scamper off into the distance, Cape Town's batsmen finding runs virtually as hard to come by. However, all of the Cape Town top five nevertheless still managed to spend some time at the crease, where the combination of Mark Ritchie's intractability together with Dominic Telo's first class experience gave the visitors a sufficient advantage to move into the lead with eight wickets still in hand.
Facing the prospect of a daunting first innings deficit on a pitch that grew more and more difficult to bat on as it increasingly began taking spin, Glamorgan found rescue for the first time in the pairing of left-arm orthodox spinner Kippie and off spinner Williams. Bowling together unchanged for the last 30 overs of the innings, they shared the next eight wickets evenly between them. Thus, where Cape Town had completely dominated the morning session of play and much of the afternoon session too, the post-tea session belonged chiefly to the two Glamorgan spinners as they exploited some big turn on offer to spin their way through the rest of the visiting batting line-up and ultimately restrict the first innings deficit to 65 runs - still a potentially match-winning margin given the tricky batting conditions, but not so large as to completely shut the home side out of the game. Ultimately though, it proved to be match-saving more than match-winning - delaying Glamorgan's second innings declaration and thus reducing the number of overs that Cape Town's last two batsmen subsequently had to survive.
