Thanks to some rather disappointing Matabele batting, the CFX Academy could claimto have had rather the better of the first day’s play between the two teams atCountry Club in Harare today
John Ward31-Mar-2000Thanks to some rather disappointing Matabele batting, the CFX Academy could claimto have had rather the better of the first day’s play between the two teams atCountry Club in Harare today. Although Matabeleland fought back well with theball after their dismissal for 176, a promising third-wicket partnership was inprogress when play came to a premature close with the Academy on 62 for two inreply.The match is being played on the new part of the square, and Paul Strang, winningthe toss for the Academy, decided to bat first mainly because he was unsure ofhow it would play. It generally proved trustworthy, although several balls fromone end did keep low. Matabeleland were missing captain Mark Abrams, forpersonal reasons, so Mark Vermeulen again took over the leadership. John Renniehad still not recovered from his injury and Paul Brown was omitted; MatthewTownshend and Shaun Commerford returned, while left-arm spinner Keith Dabengwamade his first-class debut.Charles Coventry and Wisdom Siziba opened in their usual way for Matabeleland,the former going for his strokes while the latter held his end up. Siziba fellin the fourth over without scoring, however, adjudged lbw to a good ball fromGregg Haakonsen. For a while Coventry and Vermeulen kept the runs flowing, butwhen the Academy tightened up their bowling and put back their fielders runs wereharder to come by. The Academy attack soon lost Jason Young, who strained hisfoot while bowling his fifth over and was forced to leave the field. Vermeulenit seems has a habit of losing patience when tied down, and he duly cut a ballfrom Haakonsen straight to Vaughan-Davies at backward point to be caught for 19.Coventry appeared to be heading for a maiden first-class fifty, playing somelovely drives, but he too seemed to become impatient when the runs did not flow,and on 42 he drove a low return catch that was smartly held by Douglas Hondo.Two batsmen had settled in but given their wickets away without going on to amajor score. Dion Ebrahim and Senyo Nyakutse settled in until lunch, when thescore was 84 for three (Ebrahim 9, Nyakutse 5).Soon after the break Strang, flighting the ball, tempted Nyakutse (6), who drovepowerfully and was caught overhead at mid-on by Travis Friend. Ebrahim (26) wasadjudged lbw to a faster ball from Greg Lamb, and Matabeleland were struggling at114 for five. Then came a useful partnership between Warren Gilmour (31) and IanEngelbrecht (19), who settled in well and played the bowling on its merits for awhile. Gilmour looked particularly impressive square of the wicket, pulling andcutting with excellent timing. But, like his predecessors, he failed tocapitalise on a good start, flicking Mahachi uppishly off his toes to hit a catchstraight at Alester Maregwede at midwicket, after a partnership of 46.This was the beginning of the end for Matabeleland, as wickets tumbled in quicksuccession. Engelbrecht, who had batted so well, swung at a yorker from Friendand chopped it on to his stumps, while Commerford fell lbw to the same bowlerwithout scoring. Townshend again appeared ready to rescue a Matabelelandinnings, but his tail-end partners were not. Jason Hitz (4) skyed a catch tolong-off where Vaughan-Davies took the catch, while Dabengwa (1), who appearedbamboozled by Strang, played across the line to get a leading edge and giveStrang a simple return catch, leaving Townshend unbeaten on 11.Matabeleland were all out a few minutes before team, and manager DerrickTownshend was scathing of his team’s ‘irresponsible batting’, which he felt wasindicative of a one-day mentality still.However, when the Academy went in to bat the Matabeleland opening bowlersTownshend and Commerford looked determined to atone for their team’s sins at thecrease. They bowled with fire and determination, making the ball lift at timesand making life most uncomfortable for openers Maregwede and Vaughan-Davies. Thelatter scored three before being caught by Ebrahim at first slip off Commerford,and new batsman Richard Sims failed to score before being caught at the wicketoff Townshend, which reduced the Academy to 10 for two.Maregwede and Lamb weathered the storm with fine determination and some goodpositive play, keeping the score moving and driving anything overpitched well.They were helped when Townshend suffered a recurrence of his leg injury and hadto leave the field. They had just brought up the fifty partnership with the mostconvincing batting of the day when a light rain began to fall and the lightdeteriorated significantly. With thunder and lightning not far away, the playersleft the field at about 4.45pm with the score on 62 for two (Maregwede 22, Lamb31).
