As though losing so convincingly to a potentially weaker side on paper was not bad enough, Cape Town's embarrassment was made complete by the fact that it was Glamorgan's wicket-keeper of all people who did the damage with the ball, Adrian Jackson trading in his keeper's gloves to annhilate the second half of Cape Town's batting line-up with his off-breaks.  Prior to that shameful capitulation though, the home side's chances of escaping the match with a draw had not been looking too shabby - especially with the heavy cloud cover promising that a rain interruption would be more a question of "when" rather than "if".  With some 30 minutes left for play before Lunch, Damian Thornton and Dominic Telo had finally erased the significant first-innings deficit and had just started building a lead, with crucially nine second-innings wickets still in hand.  They both fell in successive overs to fellow spinner Faiz Kippie though, opening the door for the visitors in the afternoon session.  Jackson took that gap by storm, and after frustrating the batsmen by conceding just four singles from his first six overs, he got the crucial breakthrough by suckering Cape Town's remaining star - Scottish international and upcoming Durham stalwart Kyle Coetzer - into swinging a full toss straight down deep mid wicket's throat.  It triggered a domino-type collapse of rare proportions, the part-time spinner making full use of spin, flight and a pitch of variable bounce to claim five further scalps in his next six overs.  Thus Cape Town lost their last seven wickets for just 22 runs in barely 45 minutes, leaving Glamorgan with a paltry 61 runs to knock off for victory in nominally just as many overs.

The visitors didn't start their pursuit of this virtual formality too cleverly though, André Olwagen continuing his consistent run of moderate returns to topple them quickly to 24 for three.  It could never be more than a half-hearted face-saving exercise from the home side though, and Randall Roberts ensured that his team was not denied the victory that it so thoroughly deserved.  Clubbing five fours and a six off the seamers in the space of twelve balls, he rocketed Glamorgan home to a comprehensive seven-wicket win half-an-hour before Tea.  Then, just to put the final touch on Cape Town's dismal showing, the rain that had been threatening all day finally arrived some 30 minutes later, and continued pretty much unceasingly for the remainder of the day - cruelly highlighting the fact that had the home side had the wherewithal to post a better target that would've required more time to achieve, Cape Town might well have escaped with a draw after all - however undeserving it may have been.

Even on the first day, little had gone right for Cape Town after winning the toss and taking eleven runs from the first over.  The home side's self-made 2009/10 reality bit back immediately thereafter though, setting the pattern for pretty much the rest of the match, and after an hour's play their top three were all back in the hut with but 20 runs to show between them.  With Glamorgan's seamers bowling very well to give nothing away, runs were rather hard to come by - though Coetzer and home team skipper Jonathan Holgate did halt the loss of wickets somewhat by grinding out 54 for the third wicket in 28 overs.  However, once another confused run out handed the visitors the breakthrough, three further wickets tumbled in under six overs as the run drought coupled with the building pressure of a looming compulsory 60-over declaration finally found an outlet.  Destroyers-in-chief were Devon Kriel and Kippie, the pair bowling the final 22 overs of the innings in tandem to share the last six Cape Town wickets between them in 40 minutes, the innings consequently folding for a sub-standard 151 all out.

Following a customary early wicket by Olwagen, Kyle Ryklieff and Roberts had started the recovery process for Glamorgan in the 72 minutes of play prior to the Tea interval - until Tom Main's left-arm spin dismissed them both plus one other in the space of 19 deliveries, giving Cape Town hope of getting back into a position of parity at 52 for four.  After the break though, they ran foul of the best batting of the match, as Ashley Cupido and Jackson put the visitors on top in a 67-run fifth-wicket stand at better than a run a minute.  With the home side's bowlers not looking anywhere near as threatening as their counterparts had, Jackson cruised to a 67-ball fifty in taking Glamorgan to a first-innings lead with five wickets and some 17 overs still in hand in which to bat.  Matters were thus looking rather bleak for Cape Town, but Main led a fightback that netted three wickets in as many overs, two of them being rather soft wickets - of which Jackson was one (somewhat ironically, after having hit ten fours and a six).  This tumbled the visitors to 166 for eight, opening the door for the home side perhaps to escape with just a slender first-innings deficit after all.

Things are rarely that simple for Cape Town though, and instead the Glamorgan tail wagged merrily to smash 60 more runs from the next eleven overs, number eleven Kriel enjoying himself in blazing 24 from 21 balls.  Greatly assisted by some solid catching at deep mid wicket from Olwagen, Main eventually reeled in the final two wickets as well, finishing with an impressive seven for 78 - the best figures by a Cape Town bowler since Donovan Holman's 7-31 against Montrose at the same ground three seasons before.  Unfortunately for the home side though, it was not before they had been saddled with yet another huge first-innings deficit to overcome.

The history books will now show that once again it was too large a hurdle to overcome, and two defeats now from two matches represent Cape Town's worst start to a Two-Day season since the same thing happened to them in 1997/98.  In that season though, they rallied enough to earn two outright wins thereafter, which was sufficient to save them from relegation to the 1B by the season's end.  Now in the 1B in 2009/10 though, the team's two losses from two games represents the worst record of all ten participants thus far, and at this rate it is not entirely inconceivable that avoiding relegation to the 1C could be a consideration for the Cape Town First XI by the season's end.  On the positive side though, there is still a lot of cricket yet to be played, and the team has the talent to make that scenario hopefully unlikely.  In addition, the rain also did them the favour of preventing any of the first-round winners from achieving a second outright victory - falling two wins behind the front-runners would probably have realistically killed off Cape Town's chances of winning promotion back into the 1A.  Thus, being only one win behind the rest of the pack, there is still hope of catching up during the remaining seven rounds of matches still to be played in the competition. 

Match photo's