adminMatabeleland Tuskers – 307 and 127 all out in 45.5 overs (Nkosana Mpofu 44; Trevor Garwe 4/22, Gregory Lamb 3/46, Admire Manyumwa 1/18)Mashonaland Eagles – 382 and 54 for 1 in 13 overs (Simbarashe Gupo 27*, Tinotenda Mutombodzi 1*; John Nyumbu 1/9)
Result: Mashonaland Eagles beat Matabeleland Tuskers by nine wickets.
MASHONALAND Eagles completed a victory that 24 hours earlier had looked most unlikely, especially by the margin of nine wickets when they wrapped up their Logan Cup tie against Matabeleland Tuskers at Harare Sports Club yesterday.
After Matabeleland Tuskers had been taken all out for 127 runs on the third afternoon, Eagles were left to score 53 runs to win. Victory was almost certain, the main question being how hard their long-standing rivals could make it for them, on a hot sunny day at Harare Sports Club.
The answer was not very hard. A bad first over from Steve Chimhamhiwa gave away 10 runs. Brian Vitori worked up a fair pace, but was not consistently accurate enough to trouble the batsmen. Keith Kondo and Simbarashe Gupo had few awkward moments and they played their strokes confidently against the loose deliveries. They reached 49 together when, four runs short of victory, John Nyumbu sent a ball through the defences of Kondo and bowled him for 23.
This lifted Matabeleland Tuskers enough to boost their bowling and fielding, and they made the last four runs more difficult to get. Finally Gupo cracked a ball from Nyumbu through the covers for four, and the match was over.
Matabeleland Tuskers has been a hoodoo team for Mashonaland Eagles, in the Logan Cup at least, for some years now, but at last they have got the monkey off their backs.
If there was a player of the match award, it would surely go to Taurai Muzarabani. Twice he changed the course of the match. On the second morning he took five wickets in 40 minutes to finish off a Matabeleland Tuskers innings that may well have reached 400. Then, coming in as last man with his team still 65 runs behind on first innings, he shared with Brighton Mugochi an amazing last-wicket partnership of 140 that turned the match on its head.
Trevor Garwe broke the back of the Matabeleland Tuskers second innings, but Muzarabani came back to finish them off, and the match was then as good as won. —Zimbabwe Cricket
Online Reporter