The West Coast Rollers made it five wins from five matches with a 76-run victory against Western Province Cricket Club on Sunday.
Having been handed an absolute pasting at the Wally Wilson Oval last year, we went into the game determined to right those wrongs, and with some form to our game as well.
After winning the toss and opting to bat on a turning wicket, the Rollers recovered from the early loss of Bryan Bowler (5) to take the game by the scruff of the neck courtesy of a 110-run second-wicket partnership between Ryan and Ayden Cooper.
Ryan continued his recent purple patch before throwing away a second successive 100, trapped in front for 98 off 81 balls by Matthew Hart-Davis, who was sublime in his spell of 7-1-29-1. It was, as Matt was quick to point out, also the fourth successive time he has got this particular batsman out.
But 18-year-old Ayden continued to go strong, showing lots of maturity in driving and pulling his way to a first-ever 50 for the Rollers, eventually finishing on an unbeaten 66 off 78 balls to set WPCC a target of 190 for victory.
With the wind picking up in the afternoon, it made for some tricky calls as to who would be running straight into the strong southeaster, but despite a nickname of ‘Pinky Prawn’, Tom Stapylton-Smith is made of sterner stuff.
The captain took it upon himself and picked up three of the first four wickets to fall, including the big one of Louis Koen with a delivery that pitched back of a length, but just about broke the former Springbok flyhalf’s ankle.
At the other end the fit again Cornell Keulder is looking more and more like the man who terrorised opposing batsmen for years, bowling with pace to finish with 5-1-10-1, before Michael van Dewenter all but wrapped up the game with a pinpoint spell of 5-2-6-2.
Chris van der Merwe continued to banish the nightmares of his leg-spinning days with a tight spell 1/24 off five into the wind, while Jacques Labuschagne picked up similar figures from the same end. And there was even time for our elder statesman, Neville Cooper, to roll back the years with three overs of outswing (3-1-8-1), picking up the wicket of the FCA’s favourite prostitute, Nic Slabber.
So another good win for the Rollers, with lots of banter, boeries and beers (mostly by Nic) to be had at the post-match celebrations. A shoutout to WPCC guys for a game played in great spirit at the world’s most beautiful venue!
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