Mutizwa’s century saves the day for Mash
zimcricket.
VUSI SIBANDA might have played an excellent innings of 153, but Midwest Rhinos saw the Logan Cup match against Mash Eagles slipping away from them by the end of the second day at Harare Sports Club yesterday.
How they hate the home side’s number three batsman, Forster Mutizwa, who matched Sibanda’s innings with his own century, finishing the day still unbeaten with 167.
Play started half an hour early, to make up some of the time lost through bad light on the first day.
Rhinos continued from their overnight score of 280 for six, with the prolific Sibanda on 128.
The Midwest captain looked intent on securing what would have been his third double-century of the season as he played himself in with care, while keeping the board moving.
He passed 150, but then his fine innings came to an end when he was caught in the covers for 153.
He had faced 252 balls and hit 16 fours and two sixes.
This took his season’s total to 1175 before the halfway point, at an average of 106.81, the sort of average that is traditionally compared with that of the great Don Bradman.
The difference, though, is that Bradman averaged almost 100 throughout his career against quality bowling, it must be said
The team did not survive long after the captain’s fall.
In fact the last four wickets fell for the addition of just one run.
The beneficiary was the seam bowler Trevor Garwe, who was richly rewarded for a good spell with three quick wickets as he tumbled out the last three batsmen.
The total was 312, and the team would have hoped for more from their overnight position.
Sibanda had scored nearly half of this total, the next best score being 36 by Graeme Cremer on the first day.
Garwe’s late wickets gave him figures of three for 33, while Elton Chigumbura took three for 70.
It was not a total to daunt the powerful Mashonaland team.
Tafadzwa Mufambisi made a positive start, scoring 14 runs before he edged a catch to the keeper off Taurai Mazurabani.
His opening partner, Samuel Mwakayeni, settled in carefully and a little suspicious, while Mutizwa joined him.
Perhaps it was Mwakayeni’s discomfort, against spin, that led Mid West Rhinos to bring on Cremer to bowl his leg-breaks at him early on but to his credit he kept his head, and his wicket, surviving the struggle, which was just what his team needed from him.
He nearly fell to Cremer’s first ball, as he lobbed a catch just out of the reach of the cover fielders, but after that put his head down and stayed there.
Mutizwa, on the other hand, sought to dominate the bowling, and may well have decided to help his partner by hitting Cremer out of the attack.
He drove him powerfully and frequently, running to his fifty off 60 balls, including two beautifully timed sixes.
Cremer stayed on and a fascinating battle ensued, but it was a long time before the bowler finally earned his success.
Mwakayeni, in contrast to his partner, took 128 balls to reach his own dogged but invaluable fifty.
Cremer changed his tactics, resorting to the negative method of bowling around the wicket at the batsmen’s pads. In the end, though, this policy worked, as he finally reverted to over the wicket, and with his first ball tempted Mwakayeni into a rash drive which resulted in a catch at slip.
The opener had scored a good 70, and his team was now 210 for two.
Mutizwa by then had reached his century, which came off 128 balls, exactly the same number as it had taken his partner to reach fifty. Ryan Butterworth came in and played a pragmatic innings, defending the good balls solidly and hitting the loose ones hard.
Well, though the Midwest Rhinos bowlers toiled, they were unable to sustain the pressure on the batsmen for long enough, as there were always loose deliveries, and Butterworth wisely took advantage of this.
He reached a sound 41 before a mix-up and apparently a late call by his partner left him stranded in the middle of the pitch, to be run out by a good return from Malcolm Waller in the covers.
Greg Lamb saw out the day with Mutizwa, who by the close had exceeded Sibanda’s score.
Mash Eagles are very well placed now at 306 for three wickets, only six runs short of their opponents’ total with seven wickets still in hand — and with Forster Mutizwa still at the crease with the highest score of his career. They had been helped by the weather, warm and sunny throughout the day, and as a result the pitch played very easily. — zimcricket.
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= Eagles fans
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