As expected, the home side declared on their overnight total to put Somerset West in again immediately. The visitors were always going to be up against it by needing first to erase such a large deficit before even beginning to start setting a target, but the rapid extent of their second innings collapse still came as some surprise. Home team opening bowlers Andre Olwagen and Marc de Beer swung the ball off a good length from the outset, and within eight overs the entire first half of the Somerset West batting line-up was already back in the hut. Olwagwen grabbed three for three in his first three overs, while de Beer wasn't far behind in providing effective support from the other end.
From there it was a regular procession as batsmen came and went with almost indecent haste, left-arm spinner Wayne Hendricks also cashing in with three scalps in his first 22 deliveries as the second half of the visitors' batting line-up perished going for their shots in a hopeless cause. Dropped on 3*, only Darren Chalmers emerged from the fiasco with any credit, taking his run tally in the match to 78 for once out as Cape Town wrapped up their second Two-Day League win of the season with some 94 overs to spare.
The highlight of the first day's play had been a devastating batting onslaught from the home side, the pinnacle of which was undoubtably the 119-run fifth wicket stand between Telo and Holgate - compiled in just 50 minutes from 13½ overs. It was carnage of the highest order - the 50 partnership achieved from only 44 balls represented some brisk scoring in its own right, but was to be totally eclipsed by the second fifty runs of the partnership - which needed a mere 25 further deliveries to complete.
By then Telo had swept to a majestic 80-ball hundred, becoming the first Cape Town First XI player in the past 11½ seasons to reach the three-figure mark on three occasions. It was vintage Telo at his best, with just 13 of his 139 runs (scored off only 102 balls with 20 fours) coming from the third man and fine leg regions. He offered but one chance, and that came only in the over just before he finally got out. Holgate matched him stroke for stroke though, having survived an awkward over-the-shoulder chance to cover point when on 25*. Thereafter he picked off the visiting bowlers seemingly at will, reaching his second successive half-century off only 41 deliveries.
It took the drawing of stumps to finally end the Somerset West bowlers' misery. Not that some of them didn't gain some benefit from Cape Town's all-out attack though. Obviously there were casualties aplenty - at the height of the partnership their two opening bowlers were blasted for 68 runs from the five overs that jointly comprised their second spells, while the spinners were sent packing after being carted for another 42 runs from four overs - but Chalmers nevertheless picked up two wickets in an over, while long-suffering off spinner Shaun Dick also captured a brace of scalps.
Regardless, the home side thus cruised to their highest score of the past 11½ seasons, netting the newly-created maximum of six batting bonus points with more than six overs still in hand, en route to reaching 300 for the first time in that period.
Earlier Mark Ritchie had set up the platform for this assault. Granted a life on just 3* when carving over the slips, he thereafter batted with a level of freedom that he has not often managed. Finding the off-side boundary in particular with regularity, Ritchie thus cruised to his first fifty of the season with his ninth boundary. Having shared fifty partnerships for both of the first two wickets to set the stage at 116 for one inside 30 overs, Ritchie was looking good for perhaps reaching the first hundred of his career too, but fell victim to the first of a couple of questionable decisions awarded to Somerset West captain Vintcent Castle. These stalled the home side's progress somewhat at 155 for four, but such misfortune ultimately worked out well for Cape Town by bringing Telo and Holgate together.
Somerset West had enjoyed some batting success of their own earlier in the day, primarily through an 89-run stand for the sixth wicket between Chalmers and Lloyd Simpson. Prior to that, however, their decision to bat first was not looking particularly inspired when de Beer was working his way through their top order to reduce them to 66 for five. Only Nicholas Moffit had stood firm up to that point, his seven boundaries including a number of crisp off-side hits - one of which was a slashing edge that could not be held in the slips when he had just 7*. Once debutant Geoff Dods had him caught at short cover though, the visitors were thrown into retreat until Simpson and Chalmers paired up.
Both started fairly conservatively, unsurprisingly given their team's position, with their first ten overs together realising just 22 runs. Gradually the boundaries began to come though, and the only six of the innings registered the fifty partnership off 110 balls. Thereafter Simpson went to his fifty from 85 balls with his eighth four, only to hole out three balls later, while Chalmers got there himself 20 minutes later in the course of hitting three fours in an over.
By then the slog was already on though, with Somerset West seven down and fast running out of overs in which to score batting bonus points. De Beer capitalised to take his first five-for for the Cape Town First XI, the declaration following in the next over with Chalmers's dismissal. The visitors' 200 on the board at that stage seemed an accomplished achievement that would stand them in good stead for the remainder of the match, but Telo and Holgate would subsequently put a somewhat different perspective on things by the close.
