Series thread - MTN Domestic Championship

[brmtaylor.com admin]

MTN Domestic Championship series thread
As this is quite a long and drawn out series and there are a lot of question marks over whether the games are even going to be on Cricinfo let alone be streamed, it might be best to have all MTN discussion in this thread rather than having a few dozen small match threads.

Live stream information: The moment any of us know whether a live stream is available it will be posted here. At the moment it is up in the air. Ten Sports are televising some MTN games, but I haven't seen any listings of them involving Zimbabwe. Even if they do televise some Zimbabwe games, whether they are available online is another question altogether. At the moment, I would say the best chance we have of seeing live action is if Zimbabwe make it to the semi-finals. Regardless of location (so even if it was in Bulawayo or Harare) I think the finals will be available.

Cricinfo commentary information: I don't expect any of the games in Zimbabwe to have live commentary. Certainly, the Bulawayo games look unlikely. Maybe we can expect a miracle for the Harare matches. It looks like the matches being played in South Africa will have commentary.

Squad news: No idea, no hints from ZC. I will go out on a limb and say Keith Dabengwa is a certainty

Fixtures: (from zimcricketnews.com)

MTN Domestic Championship

10 February 2008 Zimbabwe v Warriors Queen's Sports Club, Bulawayo
12 February 2008 Titans v Zimbabwe Willowmoore Park, Benoni (D/N)
13 February 2008 Eagles v Zimbabwe De Beers Diamond Oval, Kimberley (D/N)
17 February 2008 Zimbabwe v Cape Cobras Harare Sports Club
19 February 2008 Lions v Zimbabwe Sedgars Park, Potchefstroom (D/N)
20 February 2008 Dolphins v Zimbabwe Kingsmead, Durban (D/N)
24 February 2008 Zimbabwe v Titans Queen's Sports Club, Bulawayo
27 February 2008 Zimbabwe v Dolphins Harare Sports Club
2 March 2008 Zimbabwe v Lions Harare Sports Club
4 March 2008 Warriors v Zimbabwe Buffalo Park, East London (D/N)
5 March 2008 Cape Cobras v Zimbabwe Boland Bank Park, Paarl (D/N)
9 March 2008 Zimbabwe v Eagles Queen's Sports Club, Bulawayo
14 March 2008 1st Semi-Final TBA (D/N)
16 March 2008 2nd Semi-Final TBA
19 March 2008 Final TBA

[maehara]

- The original CSA announcement of Zimbabwe's participation did state that, regardless of who was taking part, the semi-finals & finals would be in SA.

- Reporting issues in Bulawayo: the problem seems to be between one specific reporter & the BMCA chairman. Given that the BMCA don't own Queen's Sports Club & that no accreditation is required for these matches, I don't think any "ban" could be enforced. From what I've read, Staddon has tried this in the past and failed - but we'll see what happens. That said, I wouldn't expect TV coverage or CricInfo doing ball-by-ball from any matches in Zim.

[zimdan]

Im finally back, major issues here in zimbabwe have kept me offline for the past few weeks, however i was in Accra for a week watching the nations cup.

Back to cricket, id hope to see a good show from the guys on the comp, as for live tv coverage, if it is shown then that is more than i could ask for! I fancy our chances of possibly winning it. I feel our major positive play of late is really helping us get closer to winning more and more matches.

[Train Driver]

Silly question I know, has anyone got any idea of the score, the squad or even if the game is being played ???

Amazingly there is no coverage on cricinfo

[maehara]

Silly question I know, has anyone got any idea of the score, the squad or even if the game is being played ???

CricInfo at least has the page up for it, which is a start. We need to send zimdan down to the ground to do our live coverage for us..!

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Okay, we finally have some news.

http://www.brmtaylor.com/

MTN Championship
Zimbabwe vs Warriors
Zim (9/213, Taibu 52, Williams 25, Petersen 2/34)

Apparently 213 is quite an imposing total, must be a poor Queens pitch as we have come to expect of recent times. Best partnership was worth 52 between Taibu and Taylor.

Taibu's 50 came from 28 balls, a real blitz. Masakadza made 19, and Robin Petersen dismissed both Taibu and Taylor.

It's cloudy and 26°. Visibility is 10km so if the batsmen say the bowler is bowling so fast they can't see the ball, they're lying

[Train Driver]

A reasonable sounding score, although 313 would be even better of course

Does the update mean that Zimdan has popped out of the ground during the lunch break

[brmtaylor.com admin]

Hehe, unfortunately not that direct. It was hidden away on the main South African cricket site supersports

[zulu]

I think that 213 is a reasonable score considering it is only a 45 over a side match with Taibu showing his class once again. I dont know what we would do without him, he really is the backbone to the battinglineup. Lets hope the Zim bowl tight...with any luck we should win this 1.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

I think that 213 is a reasonable score considering it is only a 45 over a side match with Taibu showing his class once again. I dont know what we would do without him, he really is the backbone to the battinglineup. Lets hope the Zim bowl tight...with any luck we should win this 1.

Thanks for bringing that up. When you see 213, you think it is a so-so score - which it is for an ODI. But for a 45 over match that is 4.73 an over, and quite respectable. Should be a good game, hopefully the bowlers strike early and apply lots of pressure.

Edit: I forgot to add earlier, Taylor scored 33