In a most welcome reversal of fortunes at long last, the Cape Town Cricket Club First XI’s top order finally clicked to end a four-match losing streak, securing a bonus-point victory at the Boon Wallace Oval in their rain-affected derby clash against Claremont. While the result did not alter Cape Town’s wooden-spoonist position at the foot of the Premier League points table, it did close them up to just a single point behind second-last placed Rylands (over whom Cape Town has a game in hand) – and more importantly, moved them up to within seven points of Ottoman (who they must overtake in order to avoid relegation). Given that Cape Town also still have three games remaining to play, while Ottoman’s points are now fixed after already completing all their games for the season, if the Plumstead-based outfit can somehow find two wins from those last three games, they may yet escape relegation after all and contest another season in the Premier League.
Having elected to bat first under overcast skies, the home side tried the opening combination of Tristan Coetzee and Josh Chippendale for the first time this season – and it paid off handsomely. Chippendale was the early aggressor, striking a six and two fours off the first five overs, but Coetzee soon caught up with him – maintaining a personal strike rate of around a-run-a-ball to raise the fifty partnership in the eleventh over. Two sixes in the 14th over took Coetzee to within sight of his fifth half-century of the season, which was duly completed two overs later with the help of two consecutive fours – the milestone taking just 39 balls to reach, and including five fours and those two sixes.
With Cape Town consequently having cruised to constructing an ideal platform at 83-0 on the brink of the first drinks break, Claremont leg-spinner Harlan Greig then threatened to upset the apple cart by dismissing Coetzee off the final ball before the break – and then adding Chippendale’s scalp as well two overs later. In between there was a somewhat bizarre delay when the visitors requested that holes in the outfield caused by scratching guinea fowl be filled up before play could resume – leading to the rather unique situation of new man in Mathew Goles eventually being at the crease for 36 minutes before facing his first ball. Cape Town have this season suffered more than their fair share of collapses being triggered by the departure of two well-set batters in quick succession, but happily that wasn’t the case on this occasion. Reinstated to the side after a three-match layoff, Jamie Marillier was quickly back to his usual attacking self – hooking a six before lofting a four over the mid wicket infield, en route to making a bright 26 from 33 balls.
Greig would eventually account for Marillier too just before the second drinks break, but by then the home side’s leading run-scorer Goles had established himself at the crease for the first time since returning from injury at the start of the month. Now joined by Justin Gilliland, the pair initially bided their time by contenting themselves with ones and twos for several overs. A decisive turning point occurred as soon as Gilliland sought to move up a gear though, when on 16* he was dropped twice off consecutive balls. He and Goles were thus able to complete their fifty partnership three overs later, and the pair was just beginning to go over onto the offensive inside the final Powerplay when Goles fell to Gavin Dickensen’s seamers. Gilliland continued to reach his fourth half-century of the season in the same over though, from just 52 balls faced – and then celebrated by striking two sixes and a four off the next two overs. Dropped a third time immediately thereafter, Gilliland would eventually fall for 74 from 64 balls, with two sixes and six fours, as the home side sought to maximise their run-scoring in the closing overs.
The final ten-over Powerplay of the Cape Town innings would ultimately contain a fair bit of blood spilling on both sides, with five wickets falling in that time – Dickensen picking up three of them, including two in an over – while Cape Town blazed three sixes and six fours in amassing 83 runs. Lukanyo Metu played his role in that assault, making an enterprising 24 from 21 balls, as the home side finished with their second-highest total of the season.
With one eye on a daunting target to chase down, and the other on the gathering dark clouds, Claremont’s first goal was to ensure that they were ahead of the DLS par score by the time a result would be guaranteed upon the completion of the 20th over of their innings. Their captain Josh Pistorius seemed to accept achieving that goal as his personal responsibility, with three consecutive sixes off the fourth over earmarking the start of a blazingly destructive innings. Surviving a chance along the way skied to backward point on 37*, Pistorius duly completed his fifty five overs later – still inside the initial ten-over Powerplay – by hooking his fifth six, to go with four additional fours. It took him just 27 balls to complete, making it the fastest individual fifty of the season involving Cape Town, and the fastest since Mujahid Behardien had bludgeoned his own from just 22 balls in a losing cause for Rylands almost two years previously to the day.
At 77-1 after just nine overs, Cape Town consequently had their backs firmly against the wall in the face of the onslaught. However, delayed until second change, Alex Draai then produced the magical delivery in his first over that slipped past Pistorius’s bat, and the home side could breathe again. That was followed by a third wicket soon thereafter as the home side began recovering to hit their straps, and the pendulum began to swing increasingly back in their favour as Claremont inexplicably dialled back their batting efforts significantly. It is unclear whether this was to avoid the loss of further wickets, and the damage that this would do to the required DLS par score once 20 overs were reached, but the net effect was that whereas the first nine overs of their innings had included eleven boundaries and 77 runs, the next nine added just one further boundary and a mere 23 additional runs. If that was their reasoning though, it would be bitterly ironic for them, considering how matters would ultimately transpire.
Still, Pistorius’s initial rampage had kept the visitors in the frame, such that when the 20th over was duly completed just after the first drinks break – thereby guaranteeing that one side would be getting the points for a win regardless – Claremont at 106-3 were just four runs adrift of the par score of 110. With the rain closing in fast now, that comparison became crucial – and when Michal Lord therefore broke through to winkle out a fourth wicket in the very next over, matters quickly began spiralling away from the visitors’ grasp. Greig briefly broke the shackles to loft a six as nine runs came off the following over, but this still could not prevent them from slipping ever further behind. Complete disaster then struck in the over after that, when both Claremont batters found themselves at the same end of the pitch, leaving Greig easily run out – bringing a fifth wicket that completely pushed the par score beyond the visitors’ reach. Indeed, the match had just seven more deliveries to run thereafter, before the rain finally arrived to put paid to proceedings. With five wickets down now, the par score had jumped significantly to 167 (it would’ve been an already-achieved 120 had they not lost those two wickets after drinks), leaving Claremont a full 42 runs behind. The visitors thus considered their position a bridge too far and were happy to call a halt to proceedings by accepting defeat, so although in another ironic twist the sun would break through again not long thereafter, Cape Town had a win in the bag and the vital five log points that went with it.
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