The Official Midwest Rhinos Supporters Club

[Horo]

i can reveal that Ian Nicolson is in talks with the Rhinos which will help increase the depth of the squad

great news zimbabwe is lacking pace bowlers at the moment

[Train Driver]

Well boys, i think it's all very nice of cricinfo to tell the Eagles and Tuskers supporters who will be playing for them tomorrow, but what about us Rhinos ?

Thank you cricinfo, but we know that we hope to maintain our unbeaten record without Graeme Cremer, Malcolm Waller and Brendan Taylor, we know we'll be banking on our captain Vusi Sibanda who is in top form, we know that Vusi should combine well with Friday Kasteni, Bothwell Chapungu and Solomon Mire, we know that Ed Rainsford will lead the bowling attack with Taurai Muzarabani and we know we'll have Brighton Mugochi, we know by simple addition that they come to 7, so who are the other 4 ?

Remembrance Nyathi would be one, Michael Chinouya as an extra bowler ?, Innocent Chikunya as wicket keeper ?, was it reported correctly that keeper/batsman Tarisai Mahlunge is a squad member ?, do we have some secret signings hidden in the cupboard just in case ? or will we be relying on 'unknown' players like Simbarashe Gupo, Tafadzwa Mpofu, Alex Mavhiko and Luther Mutyambizi ?

I suppose we'll find out tomorrow, eventually ......

[zimfan1]

I think we should all get new avators with pics of the Rhinos best players

theres four offical members here so the pictures should be of

Brendan Taylor
Greame Cremer
Vusi Sibanda
Ed Rainsford

Im bagging Greame Cremer

[Train Driver]

I'm not really sure what's going on here, but it looks as though another one of our original cricinfo squad members was a mistaken entry.

Simbarashe Gupo made his debut for Eagles today so our original 19 are down to just 17 now, not surprisingly the pigeon shooters seem to have moved over to Masvingo this week so it looks like a long and frustrating wait to find out just who is playing for us in this game.

It will be interesting to see what quality the individual franchise websites will have, if and when they are unveiled that is, hopefully we will then get some sort of up to date idea of what's happening.

[dylan]

ive gone with zimfan idea and make my avater my favourite rhinoes player ed rainsford

[Train Driver]

Not a bad couple of days against Rocks i suppose, but not a particularly good couple of days either.

I'm still concerned about the lack of depth in our squad, no batsman to replace Brendan Taylor, Bothwell Chapungu seems to have taken over as 2nd spinner and he's only ever bowled 1 over in a first class match before, Justin Lewis hasn't played since the beginning of 2004 and Luther Mutyambizi appears to be a batsman with a career best score of 27* and starts our tail at no 7, followed by Ed Rainsford batting at 8, not very confidence building for when the Bangladesh tour takes place.

Another superb innings from Vusi 'run machine' Sibanda and well done on a maiden first class fifty for Solomon Mire, other than that, not much ..... a bit of a worry is the amount of no balls that Ed Rainsford is bowling, a man of his experience shouldn't be giving away a dozen runs per innings but a good 5 wicket return for him and 3 unexpected wickets for Bothwell Chapungu.

Could be a close run match this one, i better find some gloves so i don't chew the last few fingernails off

[Train Driver]

Well guys, today has certainly been the worst day of the Rhinos season, we start day 4 tomorrow with Rocks 300+ in the lead and with wickets in hand, it's going to need some batsmen to stand up and fight as Vusi won't be able to do it all on his own.

The bowling figures today look really weird, out of 85 overs Ed Rainsford bowled 20 and Vusi Sibanda 26, considering he's only bowled 120 overs in his career before today then we must be having big problems. The expected main bowlers managed very few each, Remembrance Nyathi 5, Taurai Muzarabani 7, Brighton Mugochi 6, Justin Lewis and Solomon Mire 9 each and Bothwell Chapungu only 3 after bowling 17 in the first innings, what's been going on today ?

I know that injuries may be involved, but why is Justin Lewis playing, after more than 5 years out of the game, when we have Michael Chinouya in the squad ? and if cricinfo were correct at the start of the season, why is Tarisai Mahlunge not in as a keeper/batsman rather than Innocent Chikunya or as a batsman in place of Luther Mutyambizi ?

I think that my original fears were right, we simply don't have any depth in the squad once the National players are not available, goodness knows what it would be like if Vusi and Ed had been selected as well

I really can't imagine Andy Waller just sitting there doing nothing or not seeing this situation coming, maybe there's no money for any more players, but we can't just sit there and watch every returning player signing for Eagles or Tuskers, if we do then we're going to be dropping down the points tables pretty damn quickly.

Tomorrow is all about Chamu Chibhabha deciding when to declare, hopefully he'll bat longer than he should and the lads can then fight their way to a draw.

[zimfan1]

looks like you were right Train Driver and Mr Waller has been busy trying to secure the best young talant around Zimbabwe as i know that Pete Moor and Nathen Waller also have had trials for the Rhinos and hopefully we shall see Moor in the side after he has recovered from his injury and along with Higgins, Robertson, Mire and Kasenti we really do have some good young talant proberly the best youngsters in the country baring the two spinners Mushangwe (Mountaineers) and Mutombodzi (Eagles.

The best thing about this is that all the boys who have been at school finshed there exams last week so now they will be free to play cricket for the rest of the season before i imagine we loose a couple of them to university starting September next year.

its a werid situation the whole university question as on one hand i want them to stay and play for the Rhinos and try and force there way into the national team but on the other hand i completly understand the benifits of going away getting a degree and playing some good quality cricket in the local leagues of Australia, South Africa or England (I think pete Moor is heading to England for University) Then after they have finished they can come back into the system which is something that Malcolm Waller has done for example.

I think ZC need to look into starting the CFX Acadamy again where the players would attend Univeristy in Zimbabwe and still be able to play professional cricket.

[Train Driver]

Have to agree with you zimfan1, it would be nice to secure some of the talented youngsters that will be the Zimbabwe players of the future, i guess we must be in with a good chance of signing Nathan Waller and Pete Moor would be an excellent player to get hold of alongside Higgins and Robertson and, as you rightly say, Mire and Kasteni, i just feel that we are missing a couple of decent older players who could make use of their experience, we are a very weak looking side with the National players away.

Shame about losing to Rocks in the Faithwear, but it was a close run thing finishing up losing by just 3 runs. I assume Rainsford must have picked up an injury as he only bowled 4 of his overs and is missing from the Mountaineers match today, good tight bowling from Chinouya, Muzarabani and Lewis though, a brilliant effort with the bat from Kasteni again, while Rainsford and Lewis were so close to getting us home.

I suppose the Mutare wicket was not of much help to the batsmen today , fantastic time for Chikunya to get his maiden 50, things would really have been bad without his runs. Nyathi and Higgins then got us right back in with a chance, pity that we couldn't break that 6th wicket pair before the close.

I don't somehow think that this game is going to last 4 days ........

[Train Driver]

Not a very good day again yesterday, you have to give Maudzi and Tiripano their due i guess, but we let them get far too many runs and we've put ourselves under real pressure to get something out of this game.

I knew something would happen before close of play, so many times this season Sussex would lose a wicket, just before lunch, just before tea, just before the close, it kept happening and then we lost Kasteni in the last over of the day

It looks as though cricinfo has frozen up again, Rhinos 394-8, 227 ahead, but they haven't yet shown who the 8th man out is. Another brilliant display from Vusi Sibanda, that's 3 Logan 100's and 2 more in the Intercontinental and we don't know, still, what happened in the 2nd innings against Rocks, that's around 800 first class runs so far including 2 double hundreds, what can you say

I'd still like to hear that we'd signed a couple more senior players though, if that rumour about Grant Flower and Andy Blignaut is true then i suppose we could be kind and give them a game but we do certainly need some experience in reserve.