The Official Midwest Rhinos Supporters Club Returns

[Train Driver]

With the next round starting tomorrow it looks as though the cupboard is going to be a bit bare

No Sibanda, no Taylor, no Rainsford, no Cremer

That seems to leave us with the following players available

Chapungu, Chikunya, Kasteni, Mire, Muzarabani, Nicolson, Nyathi, M Waller and Wessels, hopefully we can add Franks and Ballance to those with, presumably, Lewis and the 'B' list, the likes of Mugava, Muzhange and N Waller

Let's hope that Eagles are struggling to put out a strong side as well, but i don't think any other side has a squad as small as ours

Fingers crossed for a good fighting display, although i won't know the outcome until mid october

[Train Driver]

Not a bad day against Eagles today, considering the players that are missing

Brendan Taylor, Ed Rainsford and Graeme Cremer all in the ODI side, at least we got Vusi Sibanda back, but then they go and call up Ian Nicolson !

The bulk of our bowling attack all missing in one go

No sign of Paul Franks today although Gary Ballance made his Rhino debut with a call up for Justin Lewis and a first class debut for Roland Benard, personally i would have thought that Simon Mugava, Nathan Waller, Innocent Chikunya or Richard Muzhange would have been at the top of the selection list

Some pretty unimpressive batting as we struggled to 8-2 and then 98-5 before Remembrance Nyathi and Solomon Mire put the house in order, 52 for Mire and a career best 112* for Nyathi taking the side through to 313-8 at the close

I'm not overly confident about our ability to bowl Eagles out twice, but you never know

[zimfan1]

Looking forward to the next round as we will ahve a full strength squad for the first time with Paul Franks arrving after a couple of weeks break after winning the county championship with nottingshire.

Hopfully Gary Balance will build on his good start to the season and Malcolm Waller keeps on scoring at the rate he has been so far this season.

Potential Lineup could be

1. G Ballance
2. B Taylor
3. F Kasteni
4. V Sibanda
5. M Waller
6. R Wessels
7. P Franks
8. S Mire
9 G Cremer
10. E Rainsford
11. I Nicolson

Dont think there is a stronger lineup in the league in my opinion.

[Train Driver]

Back from the sunshine of the western med, sadly

Pity we let Eagles get past with their first innings in the last Logan match, we needed a couple of our strike bowlers, but great to see that Gary Ballance played such a good knock in the second innings

Ballance again in the 40 over match leading the Rhinos to another win

What does this mean though ?, Ballance has no real success behind him in English cricket because he hasn't had the chances to put himself forward yet, is he an exceptional talent or do these two hundreds show the gap between English and Zim cricket ?

Anyway, now for Mountaineers with possibly 4 seamers in line for a game, Ed Rainsford, Taurai Muzarabani, Ian Nicolson and Paul Franks, will Graeme Cremer even get a bowl ?

[sloandog]

I think it's fair to say that county cricket is a step up in class from our first class system, but that doesn't mean that anybody can score hundreds in it. I've personally seen Ballance bat at my club and he's a very talented boy. He makes it look so easy, honestly he's a serious talent. But it looks like he's not really interested in playing for Zimbabwe......yet