Mid-West Rhinos crash to defeat

MID-WEST Rhinos yesterday put to waste Peter Moor’s magnificent century as they suffered a monumental collapse to hand Mountaineers a 56-run victory on day three of this topsy-turvy Logan Cup match played at Kwekwe Sports Club.

The Midlands side had appeared on course to take the fight to the last day and they did not even look in trouble when Prince Masvaure fell to leave their second innings total on 210 for four wickets, 65 runs shy of victory with six wickets in hand.

But disaster struck with the next six batsmen falling in just 7,2 overs, with only nine runs having been added to the board by the time Moor was left without a partner on 129 runs.

Donald Tiripano and Wellington Masakadza duly answered for the bloody carnage on a searing late afternoon as they finished the day with impressive figures of four wickets for 34 runs and three for 14 respectively.

Wellington’s brother, Shingirai, had inflicted the top-order damage with the first three wickets of Tarisai Musakanda, out for a golden duck, Tendai Maruma (24) and Sean Williams (42).

Despite the early damage, the third-wicket stand of 110 involving Moor and Williams had appeared to provide a strong foundation for the host province’s fight back.

A fifth-wicket partnership of 71 shared by Moor and Masvaure (16) even made their prospects of taking the match to the final day and perhaps snatching a win brighter. But that was not to be as Remembrance Nyathi, Bothwell Chapungu, Neville Madziva, Richard Muzhange and Michael Chinouya all perished without scoring a single run.

Day three started with Mountaineers on 112 runs for seven wickets, but Natsai Mushangwe’s unbeaten 55 helped to take the visitors’ second innings total to 207, which included a valuable 21 from the injured Kevin Kasuza who came in at number 10. Madziva was the pick of the MidWest Rhinos bowlers with a five-wicket haul that took his tally for the match to eight.

Mountaineers – 233 and 207 all out in 68.2 overs (Natsai M’shangwe 55*, Wellington Masakadza 30; Neville Madziva 5/37, Richard Muzhange 2/37)

Mid-West Rhinos – 165 and 219 all out in 46.5 overs (Peter Moor 129*, Sean Williams 42; Donald Tiripano 4/34, Wellington Masakadza 3/14, Shingirai Masakadza 3/60)

Mountaineers won by 56 runs – ziccricket