It was a case of so near yet so far as a gallant tail-end performance took the Cape Cobras to within 26 runs of victory against the Lions before being dismissed 20 minutes before lunch on the final day of the SuperSport Series cricket match at Newlands.
With Rory Kleinveldt playing a heroic innings, the home side were left rueing their feeble first innings effort, which ultimately cost them victory when they still had a chance of reaching the final.
Resuming on 174 for six, stil 124 runs short of victory, Thami Tsolekile and Kleinveldt played solidly for the first 45 minutes of the day before the skipper got an edge to Friedel de Wet, to give the Lions paceman his eleventh wicket of the match.
Paul Adams, despite having some lofty wafts, kept his head down while Kleinveldt made merry against the old ball as the pair added 58 for the eighth wicket off 66 balls.
Neil McKenzie did not hesitate to take the new ball, and Gerhard de Bruin made the decisive breakthrough by having Adams caught in the slips. The normally reliable Monde Zondeki went first ball, but Charl Willoughby somehow survived the hat-trick ball with an inside edge to leg gulley.
Kleinveldt made sure he did not have to face another ball, and continued to hit boldly. However, there was no margin for error. He smashed De Wet for a six, stole a single and then hit De Bruin through mid wicket, but fell as he tried to loft over a line of cover fielders about 15m off the boundary. This ended a valiant innings of 88 off just 95 balls (8 fours and 4 sixes).
There was no denying De Wet the Man-of-the-Match allocade despite De Bruin’s burst of three wickets in seven balls to finish the innings. He took 10 wickets for the first time in a first-class match, and ended with figures of 11/152.
This ended a long season for both teams. – Sapa