Victory continues to elude Amakhosi

AMAKHOSI Cricket Club suffered another defeat in the on-going National Premier League (NPL) T20 Blast when they succumbed to a six wickets loss at the hands of Gladiators Cricket Club at Kwekwe Sports Club yesterday.

This was Amakhosi’s second defeat in two matches played so far in the league and has seen them sit at the bottom of the eight-team log with zero points while Gladiators are on second place with four points from two victories.

In yesterday’s encounter, Amakhosi, who were batting first were restricted to 134/6 in their 20 overs before Gladiators went on to chase down the target in 18,1 overs, finishing on 135/4 to make it a bad start to the league for the Bulawayo side.

Experienced opening batter, Nkosana Mpofu top scored for Amakhosi with 62 runs from 51 deliveries before he retired while Tawanda Mhora fell 10 runs short off his half century on 40 runs from 35 balls. Keith Ndlovu chipped in with 10 runs after facing 13 balls.

Phrase Makubeta starred with the ball for Gladiators, finishing with figures of 3/28 in his four over spell while Nigel Madzinga took two scalps for 18 runs in three overs. The other wicket was taken by Ashely Mufandauya.

In their defence, Ndlovu led with the ball for Amakhosi as he finished with figures of 2/21 in his four overs while Ernest Masuku and Tanatswa Bechani took one wicket each, however, it was not enough to see their team through and had to suffer another defeat.

Wessly Madhevere saw Gladiators through as he top scored for them with 56 runs from 40 balls. Owen Muzondo remained undefeated on 26 runs from 21 deliveries.

Amakhosi are now one of the two teams that are still yet to collect maximum points in the league alongside Rainbow Cricket Club. The two are separated by net run-rate at the bottom of the standings.

The game between Amakhosi and Gladiators was not the only one that took place yesterday with three more matches happening.

The highlight of the day was the high scoring encounter between Takashinga Patriots 1 and Uprising Cricket Club at Takashinga Cricket Club. Over 500 runs were scored in that match.

Batting first, Takashinga Patriots 1 finished their innings on a huge 281/5 before going on to restrict Uprising to 230/9 in their 20 overs to win by 51 runs. Takashinga Patriots 1’s 281 runs were record breaking, for the highest ever T20 score in Zimbabwe.

In other matches, Westside Cricket Club edged Rainbow Cricket Club by four wickets. Batting first, Rainbow were restricted to 159/7 in 20 overs and Westside chased down the target in 18.4 overs, finishing on 162/6.

Takashinga Patriots 2 registered a 37 runs win over Mutare Sports Club after they successfully defended the target of 154 runs they had set. The eventual winners, Takashinga Patriots 2 scored 153/5 in their 20 overs and they went on to restrict their opponents to 116/9 in 20 overs to collect maximum points.

The NPL T20 Blast comes after the completion of the 50-over version of the country’s premier club cricket competition and the top eight teams are the ones competing in the shorter version of the game. — @brandon_malvin