A new calendar year provided no corresponding change to the Cape Town Cricket Club First XI’s fortunes, as Green Point easily defeated them at the Boon Wallace Oval in the opening round of matches of the 2026 leg of the season. The result represented Cape Town’s sixth consecutive defeat (four of those being on home soil) – and tenth in their last twelve matches – leaving the Plumstead-based outfit firmly entrenched in the bottom third of the Premier League points table while the rest of the field gradually opens the gap ever further over the bottom four.
Asked to bat first by their guests, the home side could scarce have got off to a worse start. In the sides’ first-round clash in early October, Cape Town’s opening pair of Tristan Coetzee and Jamie Marillier had laid the foundation for victory by storming to 117 in just 14 overs in pursuit of a moderate 183-run target. On this occasion, however, Green Point exacted complete revenge, by sending both back to the pavilion by the end of the second over – without a run yet on the board. Once a confused run out in the first over began the rot, opening bowler Saul Anstey struck with his second delivery, en route to an opening spell of 5-3-6-2. Keegan Crawford then took over from him, and struck in each of his opening two overs as well. That included the wicket of Storme van Rooyen, who had up until then whipped two sixes off his pads in equalling his highest score for the Cape Town First XI, and the net result was that the home side had tumbled to 32-5 by the first drinks break.
A slow-paced pitch didn’t offer much scope for recovery either, and at 53-7 after 22 overs they had it all to do. If not quite a salvation, at least some form of recovery was at hand in the form of Craig Jeffery and Alex Draai though, who briefly broke the shackles in taking 23 off three overs to force parity for a while. They were still together when the second drinks break was taken, by which point the score had improved somewhat to 95-7 after 30 overs – with Jeffery having already passed his previous highest score of the season. The pair’s fifty partnership was duly completed three overs later, and would ultimately reach 58 – Cape Town’s highest stand for the eighth wicket since Justin Gilliland and Nicholas Scott had added 65 together against the same opposition in another losing cause in November 2024. But then Green Point skipper Luke Holland finally achieved the breakthrough with his off-spin, and assisted by Guy Sheena’s leg-breaks at the other end, the last three wickets tumbled in the space of barely two overs – leaving the visitors with a simple target of 114 to chase down.
The home side’s early demise left Green Point with half an hour to bat before the scheduled lunch interval, and if Cape Town were to have any hope at all of somehow staying in the match, they needed to use that opportunity to strike early and often. Instead though, Neil Eksteen (coming off scores of 71 and 46 in their previous two encounters this season) blazed three boundaries off the opening over. That pattern continued unbroken from there as boundaries flowed freely, and at 54-0 by the end of the fifth over, any optimistic home team hopes of still somehow turning things around had been decisively crushed.
Cape Town did at least manage to pick up a belated wicket just before the lunch break, and Jeffery bagged his 50th First XI career scalp some 20 minutes after the resumption, but by then Eksteen had cruised unstoppably to a 40-ball fifty, and it was all just a matter of waiting until the winning runs were hit. Gareth Beavan joined Eksteen to ensure that this would not be unduly long in coming. In fact, Eksteen actually slowed down noticeably after reaching his fifty, hitting no boundaries at all in the first eight overs after Beavan had joined him, but he still finished with a run-a-ball undefeated 64 from 65 balls (including ten fours and a six). The victory target was consequently achieved with almost 30 overs still in hand, giving Green Point the bonus-point win that kept them advancing up the points table – even as Cape Town stayed mired in the looming shadow of the relegation zone.
Leave a Reply