Amakhosi hope for change of fortunes in NPL

AFTER having a poor start to their 2023 National Premier League (NPL) campaign, Bulawayo based Amakhosi Cricket Club will be hoping for a change of fortune when they meet Rainbow Cricket Club at Kwekwe Sports Club today.

Amakhosi, who finished on top of the Bulawayo Metropolitan Cricket Association (BMCA) First League in the previous season, are yet to taste victory in this year’s edition of the NPL.

The Bulawayo giants have so far played three matches, losing all of them.

In that regard, Amakhosi are one of the four sides who are still winless. In that bracket they are joined by Golden Bulls, Rainbow Cricket Club and Imbizo Cricket Club.

As if that is not enough, from the three BMCA First League teams competing in the NPL, Amakhosi are the only outfit that is yet to register a win.

In their opening three matches, Amakhosi succumbed to a six wickets defeat at the hands of Westside Cricket Club before going on to suffer a 40 runs loss against Gladiators Cricket Club. Their latest defeat came when they fell to Takashinga Patriots 2 last Sunday.

The other two BMCA teams, Bulawayo Athletic Club (BAC) and Queens Sports Club both have victories under their names. Today, Amakhosi will return to action for their fourth match of the season with hope of finally posting a positive result against Rainbow Cricket Club, a side that is also winless.

Rainbow Cricket Club are second from the bottom with an inferior net run rate of -2.373 compared to Amakhosi -1.487.

After holding their final training session yesterday morning, Amakhosi Cricket Club head coach Thabo Mboyi said he was confident that they would finally get it right.

“We have been preparing well, everything went according to plan. We hope things will go right. We are confident (of getting the win), we saw where (Rainbow Cricket Club) are on the table and we are looking to capitalise on that. The boys are ready to put their skills to test,” said Mboyi.

Despite the failure to get the desired results, Amakhosi bowlers have had a good campaign so far only to be let down by their batting which has been slacking.

“We have been letting ourselves down. We have been bowling well but have not been doing well with the bat. We are looking to improve on that, we will get there (desired results) soon,” said Mboyi.

The match between Amakhosi and Rainbow will not be the only NPL encounter taking place today.

Other games will see BAC make the trip to Masvingo Sports Club for a clash against Mutare Sports Club.

Gladiators Cricket Club will square it off against Takashinga Patriots 2.

This year’s tournament, which is the third edition of the country’s premier club cricket competition, is a grand affair featuring 14 teams.

The development followed a decision by Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) to add four more sides in order to open up the top-flight club cricket competition to men’s teams from all the 10 provinces in the country. — @brandon_malvin