[Match Thread] Rhinos v Eagles (Logan Cup)

[maehara]

Midwest Rhinos v Mashonaland Eagles
Kwekwe Sports Club, 17-20 October 2011

Eagles are the form team of the season, which being an Eagles man I have no problem with. Can Rhinos upset the applecart..?

[Train Driver]

Game started in Kwekwe with Eagles winning the toss and choosing to field

Rhinos : Chapungu, Marillier, Ballance, Nyathi, Wessels (wk), Mire, Mugava, Madziva, Rainsford (c), Nicolson & Chinouya

Eagles : Chakabva, Raza, Bishop (wk), Matsikenyeri (c), Waller, Mutumbodzi, Chinyoka, Hondo, Moor, Gumunyu-Manatsa & Tichana

Early breakthrough for Eagles with Rhinos 21-1, Chapungu out to Gumunyu-Manatsa

[jimbo]

LT Gumunyu-Manatsa getting the valued wickets Of wessels and marrilier. 4 wickets now. Could he be another Vitori soon, Thrust into international duty.

[hhm]

Once again, i don't know who some of these youngsters are, and Gumunyu-Manatsa seems to be doing well. If he can get Ballance's wicket, that will really add a lot of substance to his 5-fer! In any case he and his colleagueas are doing well enough to keep Ballance rather subdued. Not that I'm attributing his success to Hondo, but it goes to show that having experience around will help a lot of these youngsters become even better than their mentors. So the value of the likes of Hondo, Meregwede and Mahwire should never be underestimated!

[foreignfield]

I think Lovemore Manatsa (or G-M) was among the bunch of young seamers called up to the national team camp that hardly anyone had heard of before. Good to see him at First Class level, and decent wickets too: 3 caught behind, Wessels clean bowled. Obviously Streaky was onto something there, but give the guy time to develop and find his feet at this level first, please!

[hhm]

Lovemore Manatsa (or G-M)..............Obviously Streaky was onto something there, but give the guy time to develop and find his feet at this level first, please!

It's a pity that kind of sound reasoning eluded them when they threw Jarvis and Vitori into the deepend. Meth didn't have all that easy in that fateful ODI game against Bangladesh so I'm not too disappointed that he's not playing at the moment!

[Train Driver]

Missed the close of play yesterday, a seesaw day with Rhinos just about ending on top at 286-9

Another good innings from Ballance with 83 before career bests from Mire 96 and Mugava 29, 4 wickets for Gumunyu-Manatsa

Madziva 30* and Chinouya 8* putting together an annoying, for Eagles, last wicket partnership of 24 so far at 310-9

[Train Driver]

Gumunyu-Manatsa finishing things off with 5-89 in the first opportunity with the ball since his debut in 2009, Mutumbodzi 3-70 and Madziva 35* as Rhinos close on 321

[Train Driver]

We seem to have a couple of changes of mind since yesterday, Ballance is now showing as Rhinos skipper in place of Rainsford and Eagles have Mazhawidza playing instead of Moor

Eagles 10-1 after 3 overs, Mazhawidza out to Rainsford

[Train Driver]

Eagles close day 2 with their noses in front at 266-4 in reply to Rhinos 321, they should collect the 1st innings bonus point tomorrow morning unless the bowlers pull something pretty special out of the hat

Sikander Raza 68, Matsikenyeri 64*, Chakabva 43*, Tichana 42, Rainsford 2-45

Another good knock from Sir Donald Matsikenyeri and he's certainly giving the selectors a nudge in the ribs, perhaps they should have made him national skipper a few years back, there'd be no stopping him by now

Interesting to see Tichana getting a game, his first senior match since January 2010, while Rainsford continues to show that he just can't mark out a run-up, another 10 in no balls today, along with the mass of wides he's given away in List A matches, i really respect the guy when he gets it right, but he surely has his problems