Balance leads Rhinos to victory

victory over Mashonaland Eagles in a Stanbic Twenty20 game at Harare Sports Club yesterday.

The Rhinos were in a very good batting mood after they were put into bat and reached an impressive 184/2 in their allotted 20 overs.
But, to their credit, the winless Eagles made a go before falling just short as they reached 177/3 on an excellent batting strip.
After he was promoted from number four to bat at three, Balance struck an unbeaten 53 off just 23 balls with two fours and five sixes.

Inspirational skipper Brendan Taylor continued his good run with 54, off 42 balls, with four fours and two sixes.
Rikki Wessels, who failed on Tuesday, responded well yesterday with a 51 – after facing 44 balls in which he hit five fours and two sixes. Chasing, the Eagles started slowly but gradually upped the tempo and the good performance by former captain Stuart Matsikenyeri (73) and Peter Trego’s unbeaten 71 caught the eye. But the Eagles were always against it and they needed 20 runs, off the last over, to try and squeeze a win.

Trego managed 12 runs but the Eagles were unfortunate that Ryan ten Deoschate was run out leaving in-coming batsman Elton Chigumbura with the challenge of getting seven runs off the last ball,

However, the all rounder was also run out with the last ball.Eagles defeat now means that they will this afternoon take on Southern Rocks – who are also yet to win a match after falling to Mountaineers earlier in the day yesterday – in a winner-take-all match.

The winner of this match will join Mountaineers, Tuskers and Rhinos in the knock-out stage tomorrow as the tournament gets to the business end with more fans expected to come to Harare Sports Club.

Mountaineers coasted to a 43-run victory over Southern Rocks with Shingi Masakadza’s 3/14 a big feature of their victory.

Points Table