Cape Town Open 2016 Review

CAPE TOWN OPEN 2016 REVIEW

16th of December 2016 and teams from across the globe descended on the Western Province Cricket Club for the Cape Town Open. The same venue that will play host to the 2017 Last Man Stands World Championships.

Competition was going to be stiff as the top 10 sides in the tournament were all ranked in the top 300 in the World with the number 2 Rebels leading the field on rankings. While it was easy for the SA sides to sum each other up, there were two dark horses in the travelling USA sides. Yankee Royals (NY, USA) and Westfield & the Colombian Moose (NY, USA) arrived in Cape Town with hopes of taking home the valuable World Championship Qualification (WCQ) Points on offer.

Games kicked off on Day 1 and within 2 hours of play the first upset had already come. Hotshots (PTA) (3rd Seed) were beaten by Cant Remember (11th seed) in the opening game. A second loss was then handed to the Hotshots by the impressive Knight Watchmen (PTA). Hotshots were now destined to play in the Cow Corner Cup. Rebels got their tournament off to a solid start with a narrow victory over the traveling Westfield & the Colombian Moose side. Yankee Royals easily overcame Grasshoppers (Kalahari) by winning by a margin of 107 runs. Brandy & Boeps (CT) toppled the usually very strong U Must Neva >>> Kaka (JHB) chasing down 183 runs on the YMCA field. After the groups games finished the table looked like this:-

Â	Team	P	W	L	NRR	TSBP	SBP	20% BP	Pts
1	Knight Watchmen	2	2	0	5.075	2	2	4	20
2	Rebels	2	2	0	1.839	2	2	2	18
3	CT Warriors	2	2	0	1.463	2	2	2	18
4	Kalahari Barbarians	2	2	0	0.717	2	2	0	16
5	Yankee Royals (Club 40)	2	1	1	2.315	2	2	4	14
6	U Must Neva >>>Kaka	2	1	1	0.841	2	2	4	14
7	Thunder Dragons	2	1	1	0.294	2	2	2	12
8	Westfield & the Columbian Moose	2	1	1	-0.181	2	2	2	12
9	Brandy & Boeps	2	1	1	0.394	0	2	2	10
10	Beenskut Boelies	2	1	1	-1.175	2	2	0	10
11	Cant Remember	2	1	1	-1.371	2	2	0	10
12	Bacon Bacon Bacon	2	0	2	-0.985	2	1	4	7
13	Wicket2Wicket	2	0	2	-1.672	2	2	2	6
14	HOTSHOTS	2	0	2	-2.683	2	2	2	6
15	Grasshoppers	2	0	2	-3.745	2	2	0	4

Knock out stages would see some surprises too. Yankee Royals and Westfield & the Colombian Moose both shed their dark horses badge and were now serious contenders for the title of Cape Town Open Champions. Both teams would meet each other in the semi finals of the main event which meant that USA were guaranteed of a spot in the finals. CT Warriors (Africa Open Champions 2015) were scheduled to meet Rebels in the semi finals. CT Warriors are always impressive with the bat and this was seen in the quarter finals where they made light work of the U Must Neva >>>Kaka's bowling attack. Not many have seen a ball clear the club house on the main field but in this case no fewer than 4 balls glided comfortably over the club house and landed in the adjoining hockey field. Come the semi finals though, Rebels were comfortable winners as the CT Warriors batting attack struggled to make runs against an impressive Rebels bowling outfit. Finals would be decided between Rebels and Yankee Royals.

While the main event finals were decided, Cant Remember would take on a devastating Brandy & Boeps in the Cow Corner Cup Final. Cant Remember did manage to restrict Brandy & Boeps to 139 on a relatively small YMCA field. 140 runs to win (which is about 30 runs short of a par score) seemed like a walk in the park. Things took a turn for the worst for Cant Remember as their top batsman went out for a duck and were struggling to catch up to the run rate. The middle order of Cant Remember steadied the ship and manage to win in the penultimate over of the final. Cant Remember crowned Cow Corner Cup champions, their third Cow Corner Cup title in a row.

Main event finals time and it was all to play for. Some impressive batting by the Yankee Royals saw them post 164. Syed Sibghat Hussain had a knock of 50 off 26 and a solid opening batsman performance by Saad Younus with 58 off 42 saw them get to their 164 total. Rebels were not to be outdone as Eugenio Menezes had figures of 4/3/25 which assisted Rebels in keeping the score down. Rebels turn to bat and they were taking no prisoners. Bruce Gilson hit 48 off 26 however the heroics of Ryan Freese got Rebels over the line after he hit a blistering 31 off 11 balls. Rebels crowned Cape Town Open Champions for 2017.
Well done to all teams who participated in the event. See you next year for World Champs 2017.

REMEMBER ALL TEAMS ENTERING THE TOURNAMENT WERE AWARDED 5 WCQ POINTS WITH THE WINNERS TAKING HOME 150. ALL POINTS CAN BE CONVERTED TO $$$ DISCOUNTS ON THE WORLD CHAMPS PLAYER PACKAGES. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO.

The Dreamteam ended as follows:

#	Player	Position	Team
1	FP Klijnhans	Batsman	Grasshoppers
2	Dhane Johanson	Batsman	Yankee Royals (Club 40)
3	Attie Mostert	All Rounder	Brandy & Boeps
4	Bruce Gilson	Wicket Keeper	Rebels
5	Chris Pretorius	All Rounder	Cant Remember
6	Luke Petersen	Bowler	CT Warriors
7	Ryan Freese	Bowler	Rebels
8	Tom Sizeland	Bowler	Cant Remember