Primrose had commenced their second innings actually holding a first-innings lead, albeit by the unexpectedly slim margin of just five runs following Marc de Beer's batting fireworks upon the resumption of play on the second morning. By the time that the home side had doubled even that paltry lead though, they already had four batsmen back in the hut as Olwagen and Luke Petersen tore through their top order to leave them reeling at four for four - assisted by two fine catches from the slip fielders that contrasted sharply with Cape Town's generally rather dismal catching levels of the week before.
With their first innings top scorer Reza Ismail absent to boot, matters didn't improve for Primrose thereafter either, with just one batsman making it to double figures as Olwagen's seemingly unplayable away-swingers skittled them within 80 minutes of play for a shameful 33 all out. Thus Olwagen walked off the field with the amazing bowling figures of six for six - an analysis so outstanding that only Andile Qomoyi's seven for 18 for Montrose has bettered it over the 123 previous Two-Days matches contested by the Cape Town Cricket Club First XI over the past twelve seasons.
Left with just 39 needed to complete their third Two-Day victory of the season, player-coach Wayne Hendricks ensured that the match ended barely 2½ hours into the second day. Taking on with relish the home side's successful opening bowlers of the first innings, he crashed 23 from 25 balls to speed Cape Town home to an emphatic ten-wicket win - and a very useful 25.05 bonus point haul.
Earlier in the day it was Cape Town's vice-captain de Beer who had stolen the limelight. Resuming on 70 not out with his team still 58 runs behind on the first innings and granted only six more overs in which to bat, he led an onslaught that blazed 53 further runs off those overs to ensure virtual first innings parity. Not scoring off his first four balls faced when play resumed, he missed out on scoring off just two further deliveries out of the next 16 that he received, hitting three fours and a six in the process to reach his maiden hundred off 130 balls. Home team opening bowler Johan Theron at least benefited from the assault, capturing the last four Cape Town wickets in the space of 16 deliveries to complete a five-for of his own.
On the first day, Cape Town captain Jonathan Holgate had lost his fifth successive toss to give Primrose first use of a pitch that gradually grew slower and dustier over the course of the excessively hot and humid day. Still, it was only thanks to the efforts of their captain Achmat Magiet that the home side made any kind of progress at all initially - the opener made 45 of the first 51 runs scored off the bat in the first 1½ hours' of play, before de Beer dismissed him.
At 59 for three at this point the game was delicately poised, but Ismail and the experienced Sharhidd Taliep then joined forces to hold up Cape Town's progress until just before lunch - when two more quick wickets gave the visitors the edge going into the interval at 112 for five. The afternoon session was a protracted nightmare for Cape Town though, as Ismail and Toefy took control with the generous assistance of some abysmal catching by the visitors. Ismail, already reprieved before lunch when just 14*, was put down twice more, and Toefy was missed on 16* as well.
Thus the extremely heavy outfield was far and away the visitors' best fielder, saving countless runs by reducing a stream of solid strokes that would otherwise definitely have reached the boundary, to just two runs instead on most occasions. Nevertheless, there was still no shortage of runs as Ismail and Toefy made merry, stepping up their pace as the available overs for scoring batting bonus points began running out. Thus Ismail reached a 92-ball fifty and Toefy a 64-ball one, as the pair put Primrose totally on top with a 98-run stand for the sixth wicket that only ended with a silly run out induced by the home side's determination to score four batting bonus points. They rather lost their way at this point though, losing three wickets in ten balls to give de Beer four wickets and leave him on a hattrick going into the second innings, while gifting Cape Town a full six bowling bonus points - when just immediately prior to that it seemed that they would have to settle for a mere 2½.
Nevertheless, Primrose had still posted a sizeable tally on the scoreboard, passing 200 for the fourth time in four Two-Day innings against Cape Town at their home ground. Then, within less than 45 minutes of Cape Town taking to the crease, that total had taken on gargantuan proportions - as Toefy sliced through the visitors' top order to leave them teetering on the brink of disaster at 43 for five. Backed up by some enthusiastic and skilful fielding that starkly showed up Cape Town's efforts by comparison, Toefy capped off a most successful personal performance with four wickets in barely eight overs, spread evenly either side of the tea interval.
De Beer was still there though, and once joined by former skipper Damian Thornton the pair began gradually putting the Cape Town ship back onto an even keel. Thornton, making his first appearance for the First XI since the first month of the season, following some horrendous early-season batting form, regained his touch on one of his happiest hunting grounds - taking his average with the bat there to just under 50 in six innings. De Beer started somewhat hesitantly, but two fours and a six over the course of three successive overs put him nicely on track, and thereafter he sped along merrily to pass 1500 career runs for the Cape Town First XI, overcoming the outfield to find boundaries with a regularity that no-one else on the day could manage.
Thus de Beer cruised to his fifty off 87 balls - his first since scoring three in succession in February 2008 - and having not reached 30 in his last 15 innings, his somewhat extravagent celebration upon reaching the milestone was understandable. With Cape Town thus completely dominating the evening sesssion of play through these two, their 50 partnership came up in 16 overs, followed by the 100-run stand inside 30 overs. Being a protracted session, with stumps only being drawn almost 40 minutes after the scheduled ending time, it ultimately proved just too long for Thornton though - he holed out in the penultimate over of the day to give Primrose some small reward for their torrid time in the field.
Nevertheless, the foundation had been laid for Cape Town's spectacular second day success - and though no-one could possibly have guessed it at the time, Primrose's unexpected second innings demise would make much of Cape Town's late evening first day repairwork ultimately rather redundant anyway.
Photo's & Wagonwheels / Pitch Maps