With both their rivals for title honours Pinelands (the current log leaders) and Primrose also having notched up their fifth wins in the same round of matches, the Plumstead-based outfit's victory was of crucial importance to maintaining the pressure of their challenge. Who will ultimately win the coveted ticket back into the 1A will thus all come down to the final two rounds of matches. Cape Town on paper might have the slightly easier final run-in, with their final two opponents being Tygerberg and Kuils River (the two bottom-placed teams on the log), whereas Pinelands and Primrose both have two potentially tough nuts to crack. Be that as it may though, the Two-Day season is clearly heading for a classic thriller of a finish - a three-way battle that seems destined to go down to the wire.

It is symptomatic of their high-riding fortunes that Cape Town has now come to expect victory in each Two-Day game that they contest, and the disappointment was almost palpable during the long periods in the final two sessions of play when Northerns-Goodwood seemed to be successfully engineering their escape to the safety of a draw. The visitors admittedly had chosen to take the harder path to victory of having to winkle out each home team batsman in turn, as a conservative declaration had denied Northerns-Goodwood any realistic chance of winning the game - thus offering them little incentive to engage in the strokeplay that generally makes the fielding team's wicket-taking task that bit easier. It was probably a difficult call for Cape Town captain Jonathan Holgate, who no doubt had real concerns about his opponent's ability to chase down a large target on the flat pitch, with aggressive big-scorers like Derek Brand in their line-up proving an ever-present threat. However, by batting on for almost half an hour after Lunch on the second day to extend the home side's final target to an impregnable 330 needed to win, Cape Town in all honesty had flirted too closely with that fine line between making the game safe on the one hand, and wasting overs on the other hand compiling a huge lead that in practical terms would never be seriously challenged anyway - overs that would be far better employed in the field to maximise one's wicket-taking chances. Thus it was doubtlessly with almost as much relief as joy that the visitors captured the final available Northerns-Goodwood wicket with time rapidly running out, clinching a vital victory despite rather than because of their safety-first approach.

Cape Town had resumed their second innings on the second morning already 110 runs ahead, but initially found the task of extending that lead difficult in humid conditions against a darting ball. Home team seamer Marvin de Kock thus dominated the first hour on Day Two, barely conceding a run while picking up the scalps of both visiting opening batsmen. However, by then Francois Vermaak and Dominic Telo had battled through the awkward period, falling only as they went over to the attack. The middle order found the going easier as the sun began sucking the life out of the pitch, and Tom Main played another typical run-a-ball knock of 31 to get matters back on track for Cape Town. As in the first innings, the home team's bowling attack throughout the latter half of the innings essentially consisted just of their spin pairing of Tim Phillips and Brand, Phillips claiming two scalps prior to Lunch with his left-arm orthodox spin to thwart Cape Town's aggression enough to convince them that their 287-run overall lead at the interval required continuing on after the break. Shane Martin then added further impetus with a quick-fire 27 from 17 balls, while Kirk Wernars's career-best First XI score kept things ticking over at the other end. Brand's off breaks profited from this last dash of hitting to pick up three scalps in five overs, before Holgate finally called a halt to proceedings with 70 overs remaining in the match.

Northerns-Goodwood may have had little incentive to look for runs, having been left with no realistic prospect of winning, but the majority of their top six or seven are natural strokeplayers anyway. It was again Brand around whom the home side's fortunes revolved though, and after hooking his first ball for six he once more found himself barrelling along unstoppably towards his second run-a-ball half-century of the match. In the process he personally contributed almost 75% of a 65-run second-wicket stand compiled in even time, and at 93 for one some 30 minutes prior to Tea the home side's chances of saving the match were looking promising. However, Main then got the breakthrough at this point, and once Geoff Dods then struck hard with two more wickets in the space of five deliveries - including the crucial wicket of Brand for 62 from just 65 balls - Cape Town were suddenly right back in it. It may have been even better too, when new man in Phillips miscued a pull to offer an easy chance to silly mid off just two balls after Brand's dismissal. The catch went down though, and Phillips and his captain Werner Moolman subsequently gave the visitors plenty of time to rue the missed opportunity as they began compiling 89 runs together for the fifth wicket.

Phillips thus duly became the second home side batsman to complete a pair of fifties in the match, needing just 63 balls for his half-century as attacking field settings allowed him to strike ten boundaries. Finding themselves still only five wickets down (although it was effectively six, with one of their players absent ill) just 15 minutes shy of entering the final hour's play, Northerns-Goodwood once more looked to have saved the game. Yet again though, Main achieved the breakthrough that led to a cluster of quick wickets. Matthew Olsen then had Phillips next over, the first of two slip catches in the space of three deliveries from the off-spinner, and the home side suddenly entered the final hour with just two wickets in hand. Despite Cape Town employing both spinners in tandem to squeeze in as many overs as possible, and clustering the entire team around the bat, Errol Rossouw held out for almost half of the final hour before Olsen eventually produced the almost inevitable bat-pad catch. From there it was only really a matter of time, and Olsen not for the first time showed his worth in wrapping up the tail as he trapped the last man in front with just twenty minutes left on the clock.

Cape Town in truth had taken control of the match right from the outset though, when, having been asked to bat on the first morning, opening batsmen Vermaak and Craig Shepherd were little troubled by the home side's seam attack in cruising to 42 without loss from the eleven overs sent down by them. Vermaak in particular was in fine form, registering his third Two-Day fifty in four innings with the fourth of his five sixes, to go with six fours to boot. Thus the visitors posted their first fifty-run opening stand in more than a year, and their highest of the last three seasons. Although Northerns-Goodwood's star player Brand subsequently dismissed both openers with his off-breaks, a juggernaut batting performance by the Cape Town top order had already been set in motion - Telo and Main continued building on this platform by adding half-century partnerships for the next two wickets as well.

Thus, by the time that Main finally fell just short of what would've been his fourth half-century in five innings, having blitzed 49 from just 37 balls, Cape Town already had over 200 runs on the board with some 15 overs still available in which to bat. However, although Telo remained to keep the scoreboard ticking over, the subsequent batsmen struggled to maintain the impetus against the Northerns-Goodwood spin pairing of Brand and Phillips. Recovering from having been caned for six sixes in conceding 71 from his first 15 overs, Phillips thus picked up two quick scalps (including that of Holgate, who had stayed just long enough to complete 2 000 career runs for the team), and finally captured the wicket of Telo as well for a busy 75 that included just seven fours. With seven wickets down, Cape Town were left still requiring nine runs from the last two overs in order to secure maximum batting bonus points. Some audacious strokeplay ultimately achieved that easily, and Lloyd Moore put the icing on the cake with a blow for six that took the visitors passed 300 for only the second time in the past 13 seasons.

Faced by such a daunting total, the home side was somewhat obligated to bat positively themselves, lest the compulsory 60-over declaration find them still adrift of the big follow-on cut-off score. They got off to a poor start though, losing three wickets in the first six overs to Wernars and Main. The batsmen-friendly conditions had not changed though, and Brand was quickly into his stride to keep the boundaries flowing from the first over. Having struck five fours in his first ten balls faced, Brand (who had survived a slashing chance to gulley on 33) found ideal support from his captain Moolman - who himself began with a flurry of boundaries - to post a fifty partnership from just 55 balls, the home side rocketing to 98 from the first 16 overs as a result.

Brand himself had by then already gone to fifty from just 40 balls faced, but Cape Town thereafter began pulling things back nicely. Eventually Moolman thus had a go and fell to a fine low catch at mid on by Moore, breaking the stand at 96 made from 18 overs. Main then induced a false stroke from Brand as well not too long thereafter, crucially ending his knock of 86 from just 77 balls - two overs before adding his fourth scalp as well. With no-one else managing double figures, the home side's further progress consequently rested solely with Phillips, who reached his fifty just before Wernars returned to clean up the last three wickets in seven balls - securing both a very healthy 88-run first-innings lead for Cape Town and bagging the maximum five bowling bonus points.
 

Match photo's