After a relatively quiet first hour's play on Day Two, during which Clinton Botha and Marc De Beer had to work hard to gradually extend their overall lead against some tight bowling as they added 51 for the second wicket, the vital importance of that first-innings lead was thrown into sharp focus once the persistently accurate medium-pacers of Mark De Stadler finally got the breakthrough just as the pair began trying to up the scoring rate. That dismissal triggered an astounding home team batting collapse that saw a promising score of 57 for one radically transformed into a disasterous 75 for nine in the space of less than an hour, a regression that was ably supported by fellow seamer Morne Heyneke and a few umpiring decisions that had certain Cape Town batsmen trudging from the field in the total conviction that they had been rather hard done by. With six Cape Town batsmen in the process dismissed for a total of four runs between them, De Stadler stormed to a five-for (at one stage his figures were an impressive 15-8-17-5) and nine wickets in the match.

Fortunately for the home side Wessel Olwagen as the last remaining batsman had survived the carnage at the other end though, and receiving solid defensive support from last man in Rory Cullinan, he launched an offensive of his own to knock De Stadler out of the attack by personally taking 19 runs off his next three overs.  Olwagen thus fought his way to an invaluable 42 with a perfect sense of timing - it represented his best score in his last 31 innings for the side, stretching back to his debut month of October 2010 - until visiting skipper Wallace Albertyn (who himself had caused further controversy by arriving for the day's play an hour and 50 minutes late, but whom the umpires then allowed to begin bowling within 25 minutes of taking the field) finally ended the innings with the last ball before Lunch. It was not before a crucial 44 further runs had been added for the tenth wicket though, which in combination with that all-important first-innings lead meant that Durbanville's victory target had been boosted to a significant 210 - despite all the home side's batting woes.

The visitors had started Day two with two of their initial players having been replaced due to call-ups to inter-provincial duties, and thus set about chasing their target after Lunch with a reshuffled batting line-up. The theory was touted that this approach was intended to see off the new ball in order to ease the task of the strokeplayers who would follow, but in the event the Cape Town bowlers instead made rapid inroads through the new top order, culminating in a double-strike off successive balls in home team captain Geoff Dods's first over that all but derailed Durbanville's chances by toppling them to 42 for five. However, as long as the free-scoring Jaco Castle remained hope still flickered, and once joined by Etienne Nagel the pair set about putting Durbanville back on track. Fifteen struck from an over by left-arm spinner Tom Main swept them to a fifty partnership compiled in 13 overs, and when Castle on 38* struck his second six by blasting the ball through the hands of long on fielder Josh Bent, the tide certainly seemed to be tilting in the visitors' favour.

Somehow the marvellous game of cricket seldom includes such straight-forward scripts though, and just when Durbanville had seemingly seized the initiative through this 74-run sixth-wicket stand, off-spinner Matthew Olsen swung the pendulum back again by having Nagel caught on the deep mid wicket boundary. If that in itself wasn't necessarily a mortal blow to the visitors' cause, that blow was indeed dealt to them in Olsen's very next over, when Castle himself (having just reached 53-ball fifty with his sixth four to go with those two sixes) then went for a seemingly unnecessary big shot that allowed Bent to atone for his earlier error by holding a good catch on the long on fence. From there Durbanville had no way back, and Olsen and Main between them wrapped up the last three wickets in barely 15 minutes, due to the Law 15.8-delayed Tea interval, giving Cape Town an ultimately comfortable 61-run win.

The week before Cape Town had returned to their home ground for the first time in almost two months, only to be inserted by Durbanville after the latter had won the toss. The first two overs duly proved as testing as expected, but ten runs off the third set the home side on their way - and they never really seemed to be unduly threatened thereafter. Openers Botha and Mark Hendricks (who survived a half-chance to slip when 4*) thus set about building a decent foundation, striking regular boundaries in adding 40 in almost an hour before the introduction of De Stadler brought the breakthrough in his second over. It was nevertheless hardly the start that justified the visitors' decision to field first, especially as Hendricks and De Beer then combined to take the total to the triple-figure mark without further loss. Durbanville did have their chances though, De Stadler in particular proving as miserly as ever, while De Beer was missed behind the wicket on 13* and again on 37*, prior to reaching his first Two-Day fifty for Cape Town this season (from 69 balls, with a six and seven fours).

At 120 for two some ten minutes prior to Lunch things were consequently not looking too rosy for the visitors, but with De Stadler and left-arm spinner GF Linde ultimately being harnessed to carry the Durbanville attack by bowling 37 overs in tandem, they began pulling things back for the visitors. De Stadler began the fightback with a double-strike on the brink of Lunch, exposing a rather brittle middle order that Linde then exploited after the interval. Notwithstanding a 71-minute vigil by Dominic Telo at the other end, the pair thus transformed an ominous-looking 120 for two to a decidely substandard 159 for eight within the space of 15 overs, and Cape Town's early advantage had seemingly been squandered.

Fortunately for the home side Olsen came to their rescue in his own unique fashion, launching a calculated assault on Linde to knock him out of the attack by striking three consecutive fours off one over, followed by two sixes from his next. Passing 1 000 Two-Day runs for the Cape Town First XI in the process, Olsen's knock put Cape Town's innings neatly back on track, which the last-wicket partnership then finished off nicely by getting the home side passed the psychological 200-run mark.

With a decent total posted after all in the end, much depended on how well Durbanville in turn would respond in what were fairly decent batting conditions. Some crisp strokes in the opening over that all found fielders didn't auger well for the home side, but opening bowler Darren Rolfe gave the first inkling of what was really about to occur when he struck with consecutive deliveries in his second over to topple the visitors to nine for two. Opening bat Wesley Thomas stood firm thereafter to hold Cape Town up though, until De Beer broke through on the stroke of Tea to create the opportunity that the home side was looking for. Olsen then exploited that advantage by dismissing Thomas shortly after the interval, and helped by some loose strokeplay from a middle order that proved to be every bit as fragile as that of their hosts, De Beer and Olsen quickly settled the destiny of the innings by toppling them to 72 for seven. However, Nagel thereafter held out for over an hour in an innings whose highlight was striking four boundaries in an over, before falling to one of four slip catches, after which De Stadler guided his side passed the follow-on mark shortly before Cape Town wrapped up the last two wickets in successive balls to give themselves that vitally big first-innings lead.

Match photo's