Although they had a slow start with the bat after WPCC won the toss and elected to bowl first, UCT showed signs of character, courage and confidence during their innings against a tough opponent.
WPCC’s Hayden Byrne drew first blood, bowling out Taariq Chiektey with an LBW.
WPCC’s superb bowling attack of Matt Bolttler, Junaid Dawood and Ryan Klein helped his side to limit UCT to 186/9 after 50 overs.
Bolttler got 4/36 runs, Dawood received 2/27 runs and Klein and Dyson each picked up 1/30 runs while Byrne got 1/48 runs. Most of UCT’s runs came from the middle order batsmen. Brandon Tattam scored 27 runs in third place. Donald Paterson scored 34 runs. Joshua Coetzee scored 25 runs. And, Michael Ross scored an unbeaten half-a-century (52 runs) off 75 balls in seventh-place.
After lunch, it was the experienced batting of Derek Mitchell and Gabriel Gad that took to the crease for WPCC.
Mitchell scored 24 runs off 34 balls before he fell victim to the safe hands of Taariq Chiektey and the bowling of Brandon Tattam.
Gad scored a quick 32 runs off 38 balls. He averaged an 84 percent score-rate before he was caught by Tattam, bowled by Matthew Benning.
Most of WPCC’s match-winning runs came from the partnership of Gavin Kaplan and Ridaa Isaacs in fourth and fifth batting order. Kaplan scored an unbeaten 49 runs.
Isaacs scored 40 runs off 63 deliveries before being caught by Justin Sproul to the bowling of Joshua Manley.
WPCC kept losing wickets after the partnership, however, the little runs contributed by their tailenders was enough to reach the 187 runs target with three overs to spare.
UCT’s bowlers, Benning (2/29 runs), Manley (2/38 runs) and Yelani Bonga (2/31 runs) will look to help the team bounce back to winning ways when they host Langa on Saturday.
Langa played to a 53 runs defeat to Victoria at the weekend.WPCC on the other hand will look to keep up the winning momentum when they host Bellville at the Parklands sport complex on Saturday. Bellville played to a seven-wicket defeat to Durbanville, hence, it will be a battle of who wants the league points the most between them and WPCC.
