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Cape Town - The Cape Cobras crushed the Dolphins by eight wickets in their Ram Slam T20 Challenge encounter at Newlands on Friday evening.
Mthokozisi Shezi with figures of 3-23 and SA Engelbrecht (3-16) were key bowlers for the home side as they restricted the Dolphins to 127/9 in their allotted 20 overs.
The victory was particularly sweet for Shezi, who helped steer his side to victory against his former team.
The Cobras batsmen cruised to the target for the loss of Richard Levi (44 off 26 balls) and Omphile Ramela (28 off 30 balls).
Levi was particularly merciless on Rabian Engelbrecht, smashing the young fast bowler for 20 runs in his second over.
The onslaught sped up the Cobras' run-chase before Levi misjudged one from Prenelan Subrayen to be gently caught at mid-wicket.
Although the run-rate slowed down after Levi's dismissal, the result was never in doubt as Andrew Puttick and Ramela coasted along with another 62-run partnership off 60 balls for the second wicket.
Ramela looked to be finishing the game off with Puttick (48 not out) but was caught on the fine-leg boundary by Craig Alexander off Robbie Frylinck's bowling, for 28, with just four runs required for victory.
The Cobras sent in overseas signing Kieron Pollard for the finishing touches, but it was Puttick that struck the winning runs with a sweet on-drive past the bowler.
Earlier, the Cobras put a shoddy fielding performance as they dropped four catches.
Young left-arm spinner George Linde was also impressive as he delivered his four overs for just 21 runs and also collected one wicket, while Pollard's experience shone through as he also picked up one wicket for just 23 runs.
The only Dolphins batsmen to play with any fluency was opener Cameron Delport who smashed a 34-ball 46 (5x4, 1x6), while Vaughn van Jaarsveld (28 off 21 balls) added some respectability to the visitors' total with a late cameo.
The victory earned the Cobras a bonus-point to maintain their 100% start to this year's tournament, while the Dolphins have now lost two of their three matches already with only a win against the struggling Warriors to their credit.
