Having lost their opening match the day before, the Cape Town Cricket Club First XI was essentially obliged to win all four of their remaining matches to keep their hopes of a semi-final berth alive. They successfully achieved the first step of this process by edging out Pinelands in a tight finish at the Edgemead Cricket Club, prevailing by three runs despite posting a daunting total that has only been exceeded eight times before in matches involving Cape Town since the AMA20 format was first introduced into Western Province club cricket in late February 2006.
Asked to bat first on a brutally hot day and much friendlier conditions than had been the case the previous day, Cape Town skipper Tristan Coetzee as is his wont wasted no time getting stuck into the opposition opening bowlers. Lofting his third ball faced back down the ground for four was just the precursor to an all-out assault in the third over, in which he bludgeoned three fours and a six to give his side a flying start at 39-0 from the first three overs. There was another six and two more fours off his bat still to follow, as Coetzee charged to 40 from just 20 balls, but Pinelands off-spinner Petrus Burger held his nerve under fire and dismissed both Cape Town openers in his first two overs.
Leg-spinner Storm Matthews then provided decent assistance from the other end, striking twice himself in three overs, and with Burger picking up a third scalp as well, the Pinelands spinners began clawing their side back into the contest after 51 had been conceded from the first five overs. With Cape Town’s middle order consequently subsiding for a second successive time, they might have done an even better job – had it not been for Cape Town’s player-coach Mathew Goles. Slog-sweeping just his third ball faced for six, Goles would add further back-to-back sixes off Matthews soon thereafter. With no other Cape Town batter reaching double figures, the second half of Cape Town’s innings consequently became mainly an individual duel between Goles and the Pinelands attack. And for the most part Goles won that duel too, a fourth six bringing him within striking distance of his fifty and a big Cape Town finish, as they reached 120-5 with five overs remaining.
Partner Hilio de Abreu had the altruistic good sense to sacrifice himself at this point when, with Goles on 49*, both batters found themselves at the same end, but Goles at least ensured that it was not in vain. Even as a seventh wicket fell at the other end, he reached a 37-ball fifty – and then dispatched his fifth six off the following ball faced. Two more sixes off his blade in the penultimate over sandwiched a top-edged skied pull that was allowed to fall harmlessly to ground between two converging fielders, each of whom leaving the catch to the other. Goles was ultimately castled by returning opening bowler Ross Martin while playing a booming drive in the final over, but his 75 from 52 balls was almost solely responsible for Cape Town having ransacked 45 runs from the final four overs.
If Pinelands had any reservations about their ability to chase down such a daunting target, what they did not have was the luxury of overly reflecting on that task – especially once they lost a wicket in the first over of their reply as well. But their skipper Jordan Woolf hit the ground running, dispatching his second ball faced to the extra cover boundary prior to additionally adding either a six or a four to his tally in each of the next four overs in which he faced. As a result, the Pinelands run chase was quickly back on track again, Woolf providing the lion’s share of 48 added in just 6½ overs for the second wicket. Indeed, at 75-2 after eleven overs, and with Woolf going well with 41 from 33 balls, Pinelands were definitely not out of the running by any means.
However, the pendulum would suddenly swing sharply in Cape Town’s favour at this juncture, as leg-spinner Craig Jeffery then joined the attack and dismissed Woolf with his first delivery – before going on to complete a double-wicket maiden. It seemed there could be no way back for Pinelands after that, but new man in Barry Maart promptly cracked two sixes and a four in quick succession, 21 runs coming off the very next over. In company now with Jason Clothier, the pair maintained that tempo between them, and their subsequent fifty partnership took just 28 deliveries to complete. Their stand represented unrelenting punishment inflicted on whoever stepped up to bowl, as in their seven overs together the pair smashed ten fours and two sixes in adding a brisk 76 runs to the Pinelands tally.
It thus all came down to the final over – entrusted to the inexperienced Jordan Bowers to bowl, but with Pinelands still needing a sizable 17 runs from it. But cometh the hour, cometh the man – and having struck 42 from 23 balls, Maart worked his first delivery straight to short fine leg. Again it seemed as though Pinelands had finally shot their bolt, especially when Bowers claimed another wicket off the next delivery too – leaving Pinelands wanting 17 from four and the in batter Clothier stuck at the non-striker’s end on 36 from 29 balls. But new man in Burger gave that little thought – lofting the very next ball over wide long off for six. Two more runs off the ball after that, followed by a four struck along the same trajectory from ball number five, left four runs wanted from the final delivery to tie the game and force a super over. However, Burger was unable to get more than a single from a short lifting delivery, and Cape Town had their first win of the season, while also staying alive in the T20 competition.
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