Southern Rocks – 76 all out in 23.3 overs (William Mashinge 24*, Takudzwa Chataira 14, Roy Kaia 14; Faraz Akram 4/23, Hamza Sajjad 4/34, Tapiwa Mufudza 1/4)
Eagles – 84-0 in 12 overs (Tinashe Kamunhukamwe 37*, Matthew Welch 37*)
Fine pace bowling by Faraz Akram and Hamza Sajjad for Eagles shattered the Southern Rocks first innings in the Logan Cup match that began at Old Hararians Sports Club on Wednesday.
Rocks soon regretted their decision to bat first as they found themselves swept aside for a total of only 76 all out, which Eagles had already exceeded without loss in the half-day’s play that was possible.
Rocks’ opening pair of Brian Mudzinganyama and Alistair Frost began very cautiously, and only a single was on the board when the former was out in the fourth over, with his partner soon afterwards falling for just two runs to make the score 11 for two.
Roy Kaia had more aggressive intentions, which served him well briefly until he was bowled by Akram for 14 off the same number of deliveries.
Wickets continued to tumble, and total disaster loomed when the seventh wicket went down in the 11th over with the score only 29.
William Mashinge, however, then fought back with some defiant strokes, with a little help from the tail.
The ninth wicket fell at 49, but the last man, Takudzwa Chataira, then stayed with Mashinge as the pace bowlers were rested, and they put on the highest partnership of the innings, 27 runs, before Chataira (14) was stumped off Tapiwa Mufudza for the grand total of 76.
Mashinge was left with the highest score of 24 not out, which came off 37 balls – remarkably, he was the only batter in the innings to survive more than 15 balls.
Sajjad and Akram took four wickets apiece, for 34 and 23 runs respectively.
There could not have been a greater contrast when the Eagles opening pair of Tinashe Kamunhukamwe and Matthew Welch came in and played their strokes freely, showing that the pitch was not to blame for the Rocks collapse.
Within 12 overs they had overtaken the miserable Rocks total and taken theirs to 84.
Both batters had put 37 runs on the board, with Kamunhukamwe the more aggressive, as he had scored the off only 31 balls, compared to 45 by Welch.
However, the weather was closing in, and bad light forced the players from the field – this gave way to rain, which ended play for the day.
Meanwhile, a wet outfield at Takashinga Cricket Club prevented a ball from being bowled there on the first day of the match between Mountaineers and Rhinos.
