Chronicle Editor
Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter
TUSKERS will be looking to make it four consecutive wins in the ongoing 2022/23 Pro50 Championship cricket competition when they face Southern Rocks today at Bulawayo Athletic Club (BAC) after defeating them by four wickets at the same venue on Friday.
The high-flying Tuskers completed their third victory of the season with 89 balls to spare after successfully chasing down the set target of 196. Tuskers finished with 198-6 and will be looking at completing yet another double.
The Ainsley Ndlovu-captained Tuskers elected to field first and restricted Rocks to 195-9 in 50 overs courtesy of the captain and Nkosana Mpofu’s two wickets each. Ernest Masuku, Sheunopa Musekwa, Tanatswa Bechani and Charlton Tshuma took one wicket each.
Opening batsman Cephas Zhuawo top scored for Rocks with 50 runs, followed by William Mashinge with 30 runs while Tendai Chisoro contributed 28.
In the chase, opening batter Nkosana Mpofu found his grove again scoring his first-half century of the season before he was run out on 69 runs. Brian Chari registered 30 runs and skipper Ndlovu chipped in with an unbeaten 28 runs.
Tuskers head coach, Walter Chawaguta said it would be a great thing if they manage to complete yet another double and winning would put them in a strong position to reach the final.
“It would be nice, we are still work in progress and it’s still early days in the season but if we can get over the line that means we have four and puts us in a really good strong position to progress to the final,” said Chawaguta.
The coach also expressed his happiness over one of his senior players, Nkosana Mpofu getting back to scoring runs for the team.
“He’s a good player and he’s been around long enough now to know what works for him and hopefully he can make it count like today, he’s good enough to score a hundred, he’s got a good technique and the fact that he’s finding form and looking this good I’m going to be challenging him now to get us a big one,” he said.
The captain, Ndlovu also believes it’s still early in the season but they will build from their performances and promised they will give it their all-in today’s match.
“It’s just a process, we can’t get over-excited, it’s still early so we can only build from this and the best thing that’s happened to us is that we have no big names and that’s how best we play together.
He added: “I can’t promise the double, these things you can’t promise but I can only promise that we will do our best.”
After the match against Rocks, Tuskers will make a trip down to Mutare to face Mountaineers. – Follow on Twitter @brandon_malvin
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