While experience of Western Province club cricket has repeatedly shown that performance in previous matches is something of a red herring in terms of being a result predictor, for Cape Town – taking on the Premier League table-toppers while themselves coming into the match on the back of a three-match losing streak – there was nevertheless little optimism of any change in their fortunes being in the offing. And so it proved too, with another dreadful collapse by the home team sabotaging what was at one stage shaping up to be a decent contest – and instead handing the home side their fourth consecutive defeat, keeping them mired in the bottom third of the points table.
A rare shower of rain the day before had freshened up conditions, prompting Rondebosch to insert their hosts after winning the toss. They were rewarded with an early wicket too, but it became increasingly apparent that this was much more due to a loose stroke than any assistance from the conditions. Indeed, Mathew Goles hit two consecutive fours having barely arrived at the crease, after which he and his captain Tristan Coetzee proceeded to advance the score confidently and seemingly without undue effort. By the first drinks break an hour later, the pair had posted their fifty partnership and seen off the visitors’ full quartet of seam bowlers without further loss, and at 62-1 after 16 overs things were progressing nicely.
Rondebosch switched to an all-spin attack upon the resumption, but there was no indication of any improvement in conceding four overthrows in the first over after the break. The end of the initial Powerplay did allow them to largely dry up the flow of boundaries though, with just two being conceded thereafter between overs eleven to 24. But by then both Goles and Coetzee were on the verge of their personal half-centuries, and the former finally found a way to break the boundary drought by striking two fours off consecutive balls – thereby simultaneously reaching his own 70-ball fifty and raising the hundred partnership with Coetzee in 22 overs spent together.
This was also evidence of Goles’s desire to begin stepping up the scoring rate in earnest, and boundaries followed off his blade in each of the following two overs as well. However, in looking for more, his attempt to go over the top instead ended safely in the hands of long on, ending a 112-run second-wicket stand as he fell for 60 from 76 balls. Coetzee continued undaunted though, slog-sweeping a six in the next over to reach his own fifty from 78 balls faced, before personally plundering 22 runs in the space of two overs as the home side flew passed 150-2 with 18 overs still available to them. At the other end, Josh Chippendale was not enjoying anything like the same degree of fluency, but he held his end up long enough to enable 43 to be added for the third wicket, while a pull shot out to long on took him passed 1 000 career runs for the Cape Town First XI in his 39th appearance for them.
But with the table thus set for a good finish from the home side, their favourite gremlin instead returned home to roost. Ali-Akbar Shaik returned to the attack to deceive Chippendale with a slower ball in his first over back, and not long thereafter would use the same delivery to finally end Coetzee’s vigil too – the latter completely miscuing and skying one into the covers to fall for 84 from 108 balls, having struck three sixes and seven fours along the way. In between, off-spinner Wiann van der Merwe also rejoined the attack from the other end, and in a remarkable second spell of 4-3-3-2, polished off the remainder of Cape Town’s overly-aggressive middle order batting. Shaik wasn’t finished yet either, bagging a third scalp in his spell and assisting in a run out, and ultimately in the space of barely an hour, a position of strength at 159-2 had been radically transformed by losing their last eight for 41 – opening bowler Cameron Fraser returning at the death to add the finishing touches.
It was the third time in four games that Cape Town had scored 200 all out, and while a not insignificant total in its own right, neither of the first two occasions had proved sufficient to secure victory. Any hopes that the outcome might be different this time around were quickly banished by a blistering assault on their bowling by Rondebosch’s left-hand opening bat Josh Thomas. The visitors’ run chase had a relatively calm start, as Thomas and his partner Travis Norris advanced to 11-0 from the first three overs. But by then both had seen enough, and were ready to go. Three overs later the total had tripled – and by the end of the eleventh over, Rondebosch had rocketed to 102-0 to effectively end the match as a contest. In the process, Thomas had blazed his way to 67 from 45 balls, with three sixes and nine fours, while a slightly more sedate Norris had nevertheless contributed 34 runs of his own from just 21 balls.
It was unrelenting carnage, although at this juncture Cape Town got lucky when Norris holed out on the boundary to Goles’s part-time spin brought on for a single over to allow Alex Draai to swap ends. Draai responded with a wicket of his own from his first delivery from his new end, but it made little difference as Rondebosch skipper Lenert van Wyk – himself in the middle of a rich vein of form – hit two boundaries in his first over at the crease to continue the momentum created. By the drinks break some 20 minutes later, the visitors consequently needed barely 60 more for victory and just 18 overs faced thus far, with Thomas having powered his way to 80 from 58 balls.
As matters transpired, the game had just an hour left to run. With little in the way of other options, Cape Town persevered with Draai, who despite haemorrhaging a consistent seven runs to the over, nevertheless pushed through to finally castle Thomas (86 from 66, with three sixes and ten fours) as the first of two further wickets in consecutive overs, while Craig Jeffery’s leg-spin from the other end got rid of van Wyk in collecting a brace of scalps himself, while to his credit somehow avoiding the worst of the punishment. But Rondebosch’s own mini-collapse was too little too late: having also brought in provincial batter Kashief Joseph to replace Shaik, there was always plenty more batting resources waiting for deployment – and the winning runs duly followed with a full 17 overs still to spare.
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