[Match Thread] Eagles v Rhinos (Logan Cup)

[maehara]

Mashonaland Eagles v Midwest Rhinos
Harare Sports Club, 24-27 November 2009

Top-of-the-table battle - winner of this should end the match at the top of the league table.

[tawac]

Both teams have been in impressive form this season with both unbeaten to date. We should be in for some tough competition. Though their last game resulted in a draw Eagles take the upper hand into this match as they have some additional fire power in the form of speed sensation Kyle Jarvis who caused one or two problems for the Mountaineers with career best figures of 6/60 last time out. Rhinos will the banking to the form for two for the countries best batsman Taylor and Sibanda who have been scoring the runs.

The only worry though is that shall we be able to put in a full game. Zimbabwe has been blessed with rain for the past four or so days and Harare has been no exception. The outfield at Harare Sports Club is going to be very socked and the covers have been on for the better part of the week. Its an overcast morning here an Harare and if the rains hold out we should be in for a cracker.

[Train Driver]

Play underway in Harare where the weather is being shown as 22C and mostly cloudy.

Teams are shown on cricinfo as

Eagles : Chigumbura*, Butterworth, Chakabva, Garwe, Jarvis, Lamb, Manyumwa, Mufambisi, Mutizwa, Mwakayeni & Price

Rhinos : Sibanda*, Chikunya, Chinouya, Cremer, Kasteni, Muzarabani, Nyathi, Rainsford, Taylor, Waller & Wessels

Eagles won the toss and chose to field, Chigumbura has made a breakthrough dismissing Chikunya for 21, Kasteni 9* and Wessels 9* are batting together at the moment with the score 40-1 from 9 overs.

[zimfan1]

Mid West Rhinos 129/3 (36.4 ov)

Sibanda at it again

[Train Driver]

Tea being taken with Rhinos 218-5 from 55 overs, so things pretty much even between the top two sides

Kasteni 27, Waller 22, Chikunya 21, Wessels 17 and Taylor 14 the men out, Sibanda 97* and Cremer 8* the men in .....

Chigumbura has 2-54 while Price, Manyumwa and Jarvis have 1 wicket each

[Train Driver]

The man does it again, Vusi Sibanda moves onto 101* and Logan hundred number 6 of the season

[CrimsonAvenger]

Running out of superlatives to describe these performances by Bradman of Highfields...

[Train Driver]

That's close of play on the 1st day then as bad light stops play a little early.

Rhinos 280-6 with Cremer the last man out for 36 and Nyathi 2* alongside the red hot Sibanda 128*

The best bowling figures belong to Manyumwa with 2-32, who has bowled the least number of overs, and Chigumbura 2-61

http://www.cricinfo.com/zimdomestic-09/ ... 14303.html

Fingers crossed for another day of playable weather tomorrow

[auszim]

Vusi Vusi Vusi!!!!!

[zimfan1]

Sibanda stars for Mid-West Rhinos

zimcricket

Vusi Sibanda is the uncrowned king of Zimbabwe domestic cricket.

The Mid-West Rhinos captain delivered the goods yet again with his seventh first-class century in nine innings, a very rare feat worldwide, standing out in his team’s otherwise rather mediocre innings against Mashonaland Eagles at Harare Sports Club yesterday.

The 26-year-old Sibanda made his debut for the CFX Academy almost eight years ago as a highly talented batsman who caused great frustration by his inability to build a major innings.

For several years he was well known for playing occasional exciting little cameos, but so often throwing his wicket away unnecessarily time and again.

Even at the start of this season he had only one first-class century to his credit, at an average of 21.

In the last three months he has added a further eight centuries and, before the season is even past the halfway mark, he has become the first Zimbabwean to pass 1 000 first-class runs in a home season.

It must be remembered that Zimbabwe cricket is at present still in a rather weakened state and the bowling he has had to contend with has not always been of genuine first-class quality.

But against any bowling this is a colossal achievement, as if the man decided to make up for his wasted years in a single triumphant season.

The only first-class match of in which Sibanda has failed to reach a century this season has been his team’s first fixture against Mashonaland Eagles.

He put right that omission yesterday as Mashonaland put the Mid-West in to bat under heavy skies after days of rain, in the hope that the conditions would help their bowlers.

They did not find much joy in the pitch, apart from a bit of bounce and carry, and certainly none from the visiting captain — apart from a hard chance in the gully when he had scored only two, which proved an expensive miss.

Mid-West finished the day on 280-6, after bad light stopped play 25 minutes early.

Sibanda was unbeaten on 128.

His six companions all made starts and scored at least 15 runs; the best of them was Graeme Cremer with 36. The old Vusi Sibanda would have been one of them, scoring a few and then losing concentration but yesterday he got going and kept going steadily after his early lapse.

The left-handed opener Friday Kasteni deserves credit for his determined innings of 27, which the Mid-West coach Andy Waller described as just the sort of start his team needed, during a season in which their Achilles heel has been their fragile top order.

Kasteni batted with great patience and concentration throughout the morning session, refusing to be tempted into indiscretions outside the off stump.

He shared an opening partnership of 27 with Innocent Chikunya, the best for the team since their first match.

Ricky Wessels, experienced and confident, came in next and played some fine strokes, notably through the covers.

But an extravagant big hit cost him his wicket, Trevor Garwe completing a fine catch off a skier, and this brought Sibanda to the crease.

Within minutes, Mashonaland missed their big chance, as a forcing stroke off the back foot was missed in the gully, and after this he showed no mercy.

He played his strokes all round the wicket, like Wessels, those through the covers were the most impressive.

At tea he was on 97, and bided his time after the interval before a stroke through midwicket brought him yet another century, off 148 balls.

He went through a quiet period against the spinners after this, but refused to give it away and saw out the day.

Brendan Taylor and Malcolm Waller both made starts but failed to build on them, the latter played some fine aggressive strokes, but got away with one or two wild strokes before another cost him his wicket. Cremer gave Sibanda good support at just the time it was needed. The match is probably quite evenly balanced, although that can only be assessed when Mashonaland bat on this pitch, which they expect to improve.

Elton Chigumbura’s seamers tested the Mid-West openers early on, but they saw him off, and Admire Manyumwa bowled a couple of impressive spells.

Spinner Raymond Price, as usual, made the batsmen work hard against him.

Mashonaland were a little too loose in the field at times, though, their performance being marred by several misfields and overthrows.

Kyle Jarvis twice believed he had taken a wicket, only to find that he had overstepped the crease.

The first day’s play at Masvingo Sports Club between Southern Rocks and Mountaineers was abandoned due to a waterlogged ground.

Here is a list of Vusi Sibanda’s scores so far this season:

14-17 September: Mid-West Rhinos v Matabeleland Tuskers, 130 and 12

22-25 September: Mid West Rhinos v Mashonaland Eagles, 6 and 11

7-10 October: Zimbabwe XI v Kenya, 209 and 116 not out

14-17 October: Mid-West Rhinos v Southern Rocks, 107 and 101 not out

22-25 October: Mid-West Rhinos v Mountaineers, 4 and 215

16-19 November: Mid-West Rhinos v Matabeleland Tuskers, 111 and 0

24 November: Mid-West Rhinos v Mashonaland Eagles, 128 not out overnight.

Total after 24 November: 1 150 runs at an average of 115.

Logan Cup Log Standing as at end of Round 6

Team P W D L Points

EAGLES 5 3 2 0 73

RHINOS 5 2 3 0 65

MOUNTAINEERS 5 2 1 2 58

TUSKERS 5 1 1 3 46

SOUTHERN ROCKS 4 0 1 3 24

— zimcricket