Having lost their opening encounter to Durbanville the week before, the Cape Town Cricket Club First XI entered the second weekend’s round of fixtures knowing that they effectively had to win all their remaining four matches to qualify for the semi-finals. This was a tough challenge for a side that had only won four games in the format in their last three seasons put together, and made doubly so by the fact that they now faced Rondebosch as the next obstacle towards reaching this goal – the side that had ended their record eight-game winning streak in the 50-over competition the season before, inflicting a crushing ten-wicket defeat on Cape Town in the final match of the 2024/25 season.
But while the core of Cape Town’s line-up remained largely intact from that previous match, the same could not be said of a rather scratch Rondebosch outfit that took the field after electing to bat first in the bowler-friendly conditions of the PP Smit Sports Complex’s “B” field. To say that the resultant outcome was dramatic would be rather understated. Taking the new ball and bowling full and straight, Alex Draai struck three times in his opening over, and again with the second delivery of his next over – to reach 50 career wickets for his side at just the start of his second season for Cape Town, and leaving Rondebosch reeling at a stunning 6-4. Another scalp followed for Draai in the over after that too, to make him only the second player in Cape Town’s 92 matches played in the T20 format to bag a five-for. Bowling out his full four-over quota, he finished with an identical return of 5-15 to his predecessor in the feat, Wayne Hendricks against Glamorgan, on the “A” field of the same venue back in January 2010. When a confused run out followed in the next over as well, Rondebosch had been left shattered by losing their entire top six with just 25 runs on the board.
There was work yet to do though, as Wiann van der Merwe stood firm to begin crystallising some lower middle-order resistance around himself. At 55-6 after eleven overs, Rondebosch consequently seemed to be clawing their way back into the contest, but two unnecessary big shots in quick succession removed both his partner Liam Oosthuizen and then van der Merwe himself (having struck a six and three fours from 29 balls) to open the way for Cape Town again. Craig Jeffery’s legspin then snuffed out another building partnership in its formative stage, and ultimately the Rondebosch innings petered out short of a three-figure total.
With the opportunity thus there not only for a win, but also to claim a vital bonus point in the process, Cape Town’s opening pair of Tristan Coetzee and Jamie Marillier went after that goal with alacrity. Coetzee lofted an off-side six and four from the opening over in charging to 20 from his first nine balls faced, and with Marillier picking off the short ball well, Cape Town raced to 33 inside the first four overs. But Coetzee then skied one at this juncture, and without him his side could not maintain anything like that momentum thereafter.
With scoring restricted now almost exclusively to singles, Mathew Goles nevertheless used the opportunity to reach 5 000 career runs for the Cape Town First XI – becoming only the second player after Dominic Telo to do so since the nineties. But the pressure continued to build as Rondebosch sent down a succession of tight overs. Then Oosthuizen added to the building drama by striking twice in an over too, and suddenly Cape Town were left five down while still wanting 17 from the last four overs – with the bonus point now out of the window. It might not have seemed like a particularly daunting task on paper, but with Rondebosch finding the right areas in which to bowl, a liberal number of dot balls were conceded – pointing at the game going down to the wire. But with no more spin available, Rondebosch had to revert to the pace of their opening pair – and on a slow pitch Lukanyo Metu was able to pull a short ball over square leg for four, before Hilio de Abreu punched one through the covers to seal the win with just four balls remaining, keeping Cape Town’s hopes of reaching the knock-out stage alive.
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