Cape Town Cricket Club did not have to wait long for their revenge against the Rollers, winning by four wickets at the Boon Wallace Oval on Sunday.
The two teams met just last month, and on that occasion the Rollers won by 20 runs, having had the hosts reeling at 58/7 at one stage.
But it was a different story this time around, with our usually reliable top order failing on the day, leaving us struggling at 64/5 early on.
Hannes Carlson (21) smashed 17 off Chris Vadas’ first over, but found little support from Cornell Keulder (4), Ryan Cooper (6), Neville Cooper (16) and Hennie de Villiers (5).
However, the Rollers found an unlikely hero in Ruan de Jongh, whose unorthodox style eventually yielded 29 runs, while Andre de la Harpe (13), Michael van Dewenter (20) and Jacques Laubscher (8*) also helped the cause.
Andrew Young then decided to pitch up almost two hours late and smashed 21 off four Mark Ritchie deliveries to help the Rollers to a competitive 157/8 in 35 overs.
We needed a good start with the ball if we were to keep the strong CTCC batting line-up at bay, and Cornell (2/36) provided that by bowling Darren Nash early on, while Ryan (7-2-12-0) kept things tight at the other end.
However, once again dropped catches proved crucial as Ritchie (50*) was put down in the slips, while Holgate (42) and Vadas (31*) were also dropped early in their innings.
CTCC did have a mini-wobble when Casper started weaving his magic, producing brilliant figures of 4/32 to give the Rollers a chance, but in the end our total proved 20-odd short as the hosts got the runs in the penultimate over.
Still, a brilliant day out at one of the best grounds in the League and with a great bunch of blokes.
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