The Cape Town First XI righted all the batting wrongs that they were accused of following their defeat of the week before, as taking on log leaders Western Province CC at the Wally Wilson Oval, their top-order batters converted their starts into innings of significance, while the middle order (albeit a new-look one) then used that platform to contribute strongly. Although records are somewhat incomplete, the net result was Cape Town piling up apparently their highest total against WPCC since December 1947 (on which occasion they had amassed 352 in a double-innings game). While the result left Cape Town’s position on the Premier League points table unchanged, for the hosts it meant that they relinquished top spot, sliding down to third instead.
There was little indication of such an outcome to begin with though, as taking first strike for the first time in the 50-over competition this season, Cape Town lost both openers within the first ten minutes of play. It might have been worse still had the chance offered by Josh Chippendale to wide mid off when 3* been held – but it was put down, and the visitors had their lifeline. The three overs immediately thereafter cost 29 runs instead, as Chippendale and Mathew Goles proceeded to knock the home side’s opening bowlers out of the attack with a flurry of boundaries – and Cape Town were on their way. The pair raised their fifty partnership 45 minutes into the game, and by the first drinks break Goles had reached a 58-ball fifty with his eighth boundary (thereby surpassing Dominic Telo’s career record of 36 fifty-plus scores for the Cape Town First XI over the past three decades), leaving the visitors sitting comfortably on 88-2 after just 18 overs.
Matters showed no improvement for WPCC after the resumption either. Chippendale and Goles continued merrily to complete their hundred partnership five overs later, Chippendale was missed again on 41* in the following over – and then reached his fifty from 75 balls in the over after that. Goles slog-swept a six not long thereafter to raise the 150-run partnership, but then holed out next ball to a fine catch on the long off boundary trying to repeat the outcome. Still there was no respite for WPCC, as next man in Justin Gilliland was quickly into his stride to position Cape Town for a big finish at 185-3 after 34 overs at the second drinks break. With both Chippendale (again) and Gilliland subsequently missed in quick succession in the closing stages, their fifty partnership followed from just 52 balls spent together, and three overs later Chippendale off-drove his tenth four (to go with an early six) that took him to his maiden hundred for Cape Town, from just 122 balls faced.
He fell rather tamely almost immediately thereafter, but Gilliand continued unfazed – cracking six fours in the space of four overs to rocket to a 49-ball fifty in his first match back for the Cape Town First XI since the new season’s opening weekend – as well as taking him passed 500 career runs for the side. Still, the home side’s provincial representative Oliver Whitehead finished strongly in the face of the onslaught, picking up Gilliland as the first of two wickets in consecutive overs, but the loss of five wickets in the final ten overs didn’t prevent the visitors from plundering 85 runs as well, Storm van Rooyen returning to the side for the first time since mid-January to play a cameo of 20 from 15 balls – and ultimately WPCC found themselves chasing just shy of 300 for victory.
It was a tall order to ask from any side, much less one as inexperienced as the home side had available (the last time that Cape Town faced WPCC, in January, the latter had fielded a side with a combined total of 135 appearances against Cape Town – their team in this match could manage just 71, including three fixture debutants). And the quick loss of the experienced Derek Mitchell in just the second over of their reply – the only player in the side to have made either 20 appearances or 400 runs against Cape Town – was a telling blow from the outset.
But with everything to play for, there was never a question of WPCC meekly succumbing. In Givon Christian they had another longstanding veteran of the club cricket circuit, and he and Ben van der Merwe set about rebuilding the home side’s challenge. Batting carefully but without fear of accepting the opportunities on offer to hit boundaries too, the pair had completed a fifty partnership by the time the first drinks break was taken, and within 25 minutes of the resumption, both had gone on to reach their individual fifties and post the hundred partnership between them – van der Merwe (having been given a life on 39*) getting to the milestone off 71 balls by hitting his fifth and sixth fours off consecutive deliveries, while Christian reached his landmark by lofting his 68th ball for six (to go with five earlier fours).
At 124-1 after 27 overs, WPCC were still in the contest – despite needing 7½ runs to the over by then – but the late introduction of Craig Jeffery’s floated leg-breaks at that juncture soon set about changing that. It took him just eight deliveries to finally break the stubborn second-wicket stand, and though he subsequently had to endure some punishment – home team skipper Nick Barlow hit a six and two fours off the first six balls that Jeffery bowled to him, as 41 runs came from his initial six-over spell – Jeffery also bagged two more scalps before the next drinks break to keep the visitors well in control as the asking rate crept above eight for the final 16 overs.
With a well-set van der Merwe still at the crease though, WPCC were not completely out of the contest – until he moved too far across on the sweep to give Jeffery his fourth scalp of those six overs. From there the home side’s challenge finally began to fade. Only Whitehead remained to them as someone with any real batting experience, and though he hit three fours and a six in the space of five balls faced, his dismissal on the cusp of the final ten-over Powerplay all but signalled the end. Needing 87 from those last ten overs with six wickets already down and a seventh looking unlikely to be able to bat, WPCC found themselves out of manoeuvre room. Ethan Currin counter-attacked by hitting Jeffery for three consecutive fours to deny Cape Town a bonus-point win, but the latter nevertheless completed his maiden five-for for Cape Town in the same over. Opening bowler Jaden Rose then returned to finish matters by claiming the final two available wickets in his first over back, and Cape Town had secured as comfortable a win over WPCC as any they have enjoyed in recent times.
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