Vusumuzi Dube
Brandon Moyo
DURBAN Qalandars recorded their fourth win of the league in the Zim Cyber City Zim Afro T10 league while adding on to bottom placed Joburg Qalandars’ misery in the championship.
The Qalandars moved to eight points after recording a two-run win over the Buffaloes in a thriller played at Harare Sports Club. Batting first, the Craig Ervine captained Qalandars side scored 123/3 in their 10 overs and went on to restrict the Buffaloes to 119/5 in 10 overs.
After the defeat early on, the Buffaloes have only managed one victory in their first five matches. In yesterday’s opener, Tim Seifert once again showed his class for Qalandars as he fell four runs short of his half century on 46 runs off 20 deliveries.
The skipper Ervine and Asif Ali stood up to see their side post a defendable total with the latter striking at over 300. Ali remained undefeated on 31 runs from just 10 deliveries while Ervine scored 30 runs not out from 14 balls. Andre Fletcher (nine) and Hazratullah Zazai (two) were the only other wickets that fell. Wellington Masakadza finished with figures of 2/22 in his two over spell for the Buffaloes while Ravi Bopara took the other wicket that fell.
In their defense, the Qalandars struck early with Mohammed Amir getting the wicket of Milton Shumba for nine runs in five balls to leave the Buffaloes on 10/1 in the first over. Amir went on to finish with two scalps for 23 runs in his spell while Daryn Dupavillon, Tendai Chatara and Bradley Evans all took one wicket apiece.
Yousuf Pathan’s 32 runs off 15 balls nor Mohammed Hafeez’s 30 runs off 13 balls were enough to see their team cross the line in yesterday’s opener. Mushfiqur Rahim and Bopara finished unbeaten on 18 and 14 runs respectively, both having faced six balls.
The second match of the day saw Donovan Ferreira put up his best performance of the league so far to help Harare Hurricanes reach a good score at the end of their 10 overs. Ferreira, showed immense power hitting skills, hitting 30 runs off the last over off five consecutive sixes and he finished unbeaten on 87 runs off 33 balls, powering the Hurricanes to 115/6 in 10 overs.
Before the Ferreira masterclass, which saw him shoot to the top of the highest individual scores in the tournament, overtaking Seifert, the Hurricanes were struggling on 11/3 in 2,4 overs after Sheldon Cottrell wreaked havoc at the top. Only two Hurricanes batters crossed double figures, with the other being Luke Jongwe who was watching from the other end as Ferreira hit 30 in five. Jongwe finished unbeaten on 10 runs from five balls.
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The last match of the day, which was still ongoing at the time of going for print, was between Bulawayo Braves and the wounded and struggling Joburg Buffaloes. The Braves were coming from an impressive victory on Monday where they thumped the Hurricanes by seven wickets courtesy of a Sikandar Raza masterclass with the bat.
The Zim Cyber City Zim Afro T10 has reached an interesting stage as play-off matches are nearing. Today, Cape Town Samp Army will go up against Bulawayo Braves in the first match of the day while the second game will be between Harare Hurricanes and Durban Qalandars.
Cape Town Samp Army will return to action in the last game of the day where they will be up against the Joburg Buffaloes. – @brandon_malvin
Online Reporter