Sibanda shines in Aussie cricket

FORMER Zimbabwe international cricketer, Vusi Sibanda has been showing his class in Australia where he has been based in the past years.

The 40-year-old former Chevrons star proved he still has the gas over the weekend after helping Canberra based club, Tuggeranong beat Ginninderra by 10 wickets in the ACT Premier Cricket competition.

It is a one day competition and Sibanda put up a brilliant all round performance to help his team blow away their opponents. He took two wickets with ball in hand and went on to score an unbeaten half century to guide his side to a comfortable win.

Finishing with figures of 2/19 with the ball, Sibanda had a handy spell as Tuggeranong bowled out Ginninderra for just 88 runs before he and his opening partner, Zach Maron took matters into their own hands and chased down the target and finished on 91/0.

The Zimbabwean star scored a brilliant 63 runs not out off 27 balls while his partner, Maron finished on 26 runs not out.

After the match, Tuggeranong’s Shane Devoy, who finished with figures of 3/3, was full of praise for Sibanda whom he said has been a key member of their team with his international experience. He said they did not expect to win like that.

“We definitely didn’t see that type of scorecard coming when we rocked up, it was quite a shock. Conditions were spin friendly which was challenging but Zach and Vusi demonstrated some awesome skills.

“Vusi did play Test cricket for Zimbabwe for a reason. He’s an exceptional player and we are lucky to have him for the last two seasons. Some of the lessons he’s passed on to younger players have been invaluable,” said Devoy.

Apart from his performances on the field of play, Sibanda has also been making strides off the field as he was, a couple of weeks back, named by Cricket Australia as an assistant coach for the Prime Minister’s XI squad for the first class fixture played against Pakistan from December 6 to 9 at Manuka Oval in Canberra.

The match was used as a warm up for the visiting Pakistan team who are up against Australia in a three match Test series. The hosts, Australia, have taken a 1-0 lead in the series.

Sibanda, regarded as one of the most talented players Zimbabwe has ever had, was part of the Prime Minister’s XI coaching staff that has the likes of former Sri Lanka international, Thilan Samaraweera. – @brandon_malvin