Wise Owl crowned Petra T20 champs

Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter

MARONDERA based, Wise Owl High School were crowned champions of the 2023 Petra Twenty20 cricket tournament after a four wicket triumph over Christian Brothers College (CBC) at Petra College Senior on Saturday.

Having four national Under-19 players, the eventual champions scored 128/6 in 19.2 overs and went on to bowl out CBC for 125 runs in 18 overs to win the exciting final.

Tashinga Makoni was Wise Owl’s leading run scorer with 29 runs off 33 deliveries while Leeroy Chiwaula scored 20 runs off 14 deliveries. Brendon Senzere chipped in with 19 runs off 18 deliveries in the first innings of the match.

Travis Pettican was the star with the ball for CBC after he finished with figures 3/24 in his four overs while Rudra Desai took two scalps for 17 runs in his four over spell. In their chase, CBC lost the early wicket of their skipper, Saxon Pettican in the second over for 15 runs which was the team’s third highest score in the match.

The high scorer was Zimbabwe Under-19 player, Munashe Chimusoro who scored 35 runs from 23 balls while Justin Steyn remained undefeated on 27 runs from 13 deliveries as they fell short of making sure that the trophy stays in Bulawayo. Tadiwanashe Kurehwatira and Simbarashe Mudzengerere took three wickets each for Wise Owl to guide them to victory.

A total of eight teams took part in the tournament with one coming from Botswana. The schools which participated were Petra, Heritage, CBC, Kyle College, Eaglesvale, Wise Owl, Milton Boys High and John McKenzie of Botswana. The eight teams were put into three groups of three teams but Pool A only had two teams, Heritage and Petra where the former proceeded through with two points.

In Pool B, CBC topped the standings with four points after two wins followed by Kyle College on two points while Eaglesvale finished at the bottom with zero points. Wise Owl topped Pool C with four points followed by Milton on two points and John McKenzie with none.

“Everything went well according to our expectations and I was impressed with the level of cricket that was displayed by all the players who took part. The more we play such tournaments, the more the youngsters will get better and take their cricket to the next level so we are looking forward to hosting bigger and better tournaments next time,” said tournament director, Stanslaus Rukato.

Petra College Senior headmaster, Robert Aldrige said they look forward to hosting the tournament again next year as it will help juniors cricket grow and move from strength to strength. He added that exposing players to teams that they don’t often play with is an important way of growing the game. — @brandon_malvin