Northern Zimbabwe beat Southern Zimbabwe by 188 runs

 Always a bit heart breaking when a team puts up a decent performance when the game is already buried. Such was the case for Southern Zimabwbe today. After getting the North put for 272 in their second innings, they were in need of a huge 427 runs. After posting only 12 in their first dig it seemed unlikely. At 8-1 and 20-2, it seemed a humbling was on the cards. A staunch middle order resistance, led by Tafadzwa Tsiga, managed to haul them to 238 - still a gulf of 188 runs.

The second game starts on Sunday. 

Zimbabwe Regional Games Day Two

 The North's captain, Wessley Madhevere, added insult to the South's injury by opening up a 405 run lead with a further three days to go in this match.

After bowling the South out for a mere 102 and thus opening a lead of 154. Madhevere might feel like heaping more misery on tomorrow as he is 15 runs away from his century overnight. 

Zimbabwe Regional Games Day One

 Sikandar Raza was the star of this twice yearly face off pitting the Northern teams vs the South. Raza scored 131 of the North's 256 runs. In reply the South lost 4 wickets for 33 runs in 10 overs.

This is the North's to lose. 

Zimbabwe Cricket Women's Fifty50 Challenge Day One

 Today marked the start of Zimbabwe Cricket Women's Fifty50 Challenge with all 4 teams in action.

Mashonaland's Olinda Chare was the difference as her 4-21 helped Matabeleland fall 27 runs short of the target of 145 in a thrilling game in Harare.

The performance of the day has to be from the Rhinos' Ashley Ndiraya who began the match with 3 wickets as the Mountaineers were all out for 130. She then, almost single-handedly polished off that total within 18 runs; scoring 87* off 66 balls.

Matches continue on Monday with the two winning teams today facing off against each other. 

Logan Cup Update

 The Mountaineers were nothing if not consistent in this fixture. After getting 265 in their first dig, they bettered that by 4 runs second time out. Timycen Maruma was their top scorer with 67.

This left Southern Rocks needing 58 runs in reply. They made something of a meal of it and needed 3 wickets to get there - but there were playing at a T20 lick. The win narrows the gap between the Rocks and the Mountaineers to 10 points.

In the other match, Mashonaland beat the hapless Mid West Rhinos by 157 runs in 3 days.

It's all change in terms of highest runscorer and most wickets. Craig Ervine scored his second successive century for Matabeleland in the last round of fixtures and is therefore top of the tree with 629; 99 more than his nearest rival. His teammate Ernest Masuku got 6 wickets in the same fixture to give him 36@23.44. 

Logan Cup Innings Break Update

 

As predicted, The Mountaineers could not produce the goods in their first innings and fell 212 short of the target.

Cuthbert Musoko was the main cause of The Mountaineers pain as he proved both destructive and restrictive with figures of 14.2-7-15-5.

They have been asked to follow on. 

CSA T20 Challenge Update

 

It's looking pretty likely that we have our 4 semi finalists. Western Province and Titans are dead certs after having won 5 of their six games. Places 3, 4 and 5 are held by Boland, Dolphins and North West who all have a game in hand. Boland are home and dry and it is just between the latter two who play tomorrow.

Tristan Stubbs is gaining some real traction on this tournament with many cricketing hipster clamouring for his national debut after he has scored 275 St an average of 55. The bowling charts are a bit tighter but Western Province's Junaid Khan has 10 at an average of 11.9 which is more than decent.