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Zimbabwe Sweeps SuperSport Challenge with 134 Run Win

Sat, 05/01/2008 - 21:51 — admin

Zimbabwe secured a 3-0 sweep of the SuperSport Challenge today with a 134 run win over SA Composite XI - and after the side's wobbles earlier in the match had made it look like there was a chance of Composite taking the game, it ended up as a rather pedestrian win. Beginning the day with just 1 wicket in had, Zimbabwe didn't last too long, with Ray Price the last man out, leaving Zim on an impressive 417, giving Composite a target of 321 runs. Based on their first innings, thy should have had a chance of reaching that or at least batting out the day to secure a draw, but in truth they never came close.

Chris Mpofu began the rout with two quick wickets early in the day, as Kreusch and Akoojee fell cheaply, and the rest of the Zimbabwean attack all did their bit as wickets fell regularly through the morning session. Prosper Utseya was best of the bunch again, taking a hugely effective 3/10 in under 4 overs, while Ray Price was the only bowler without a scalp to his name. Jeggels and Bossenger steadied the ship in Composite's mid-order, but a short rain break during the afternoon session seemed to work wonders for Zimbabwe, with the remaining wickets falling within just 15 balls of the restart.

Zimbabwe now go in to the Pakistan series with a morale-boosting set of results under their belts - even if the opposition wasn't the greatest - but with selection issues and the issue of racial quotas hanging over the side, it's too early to predict a competitive tour yet. We'll see.

Next match: Namibia v Zimbabwe Provinces in Windhoek (SA Provincial Challenge), 10-12 January 2008.
Zimbabwe 256 (Dabengwa 79, Kreusch 3/28) & 417 (Williams 107, Walters 4/114), South African Composite XI 353 (McLaren 80, Koortzen 80, Utseya 5/70) & 186 (Jeggels 46, Bossenger 46, Utseya 3/10). Zimbabwe win by 134 runs, win series 3-0. Scorecard below the cut.
Previous days' reports: Day One | Day Two | Day Three

Zimbabwe 1st innings
H Masakadza	c Bossenger b Walters	        1
V Sibanda	c Bossenger b Walters	        25
CJ Chibhabha	c Bossenger b Kreusch	        45
T Taibu	        c Bossenger b Kruger	        0
SC Williams	c Koortzen b Tshabalala	        28
KM Dabengwa	c Bossenger b Kreusch	        79
E Chigumbura	c McLaren b Kruger	        5
P Utseya	lbw b Walters	                38
RW Price	c Bossenger b Kruger	        7
T Maruma	c & b Kreusch	                23
CB Mpofu	not out	                        0
    Extras	(lb 3, nb 2)	                5
    Total	(all out; 78.1 overs; 330 mins)	256

Fall of wickets: 1-9 (Masakadza, 3.1 ov), 2-46 (Sibanda, 11.3 ov), 
3-51 (Taibu, 12.5 ov), 4-88 (Chibhabha, 26.1 ov), 5-104 (Williams, 29.4 ov), 
6-111 (Chigumbura, 32.5 ov), 7-187 (Utseya, 50.6 ov), 8-217 (Price, 59.4 ov), 
9-255 (Dabengwa, 76.6 ov), 10-256 (Maruma, 78.1 ov)

Bowling	        O	M	R	W	Econ	
S Mjekula	13	1	30	0	2.30	
BD Walters	13	3	38	3	2.92	(1nb)
AK Kruger	19	4	59	3	3.10	
JP Kreusch	8.1	2	28	3	3.42	
T Tshabalala	19	3	63	1	3.31	(1nb)
J Symes	        6	0	35	0	5.83


South African Composite XI 1st innings 
JP Kreusch      c Taibu b Chibhabha             29 
M Akoojee       st Taibu b Price                29 
AP McLaren      c Dabengwa b Utseya             80
PJ Koortzen     c Masakadza b Utseya            80 
J Symes         c Masakadza b Utseya            17 
RR Jeggels      lbw b Chigumbura                53
W Bossenger     c Dabengwa b Maruma             30 
AK Kruger       c Williams b Utseya             27 
T Tshabalala    c Masakadza b Price             1 
BD Walters      c Chibhabha b Utseya            0
S Mjekula       not out                         0
    Extras (lb 6, w 1)                          7
    Total (all out; 99 overs; 372 mins)         353 

Fall of wickets: 1-54 (Akoojee, 19.2 ov), 2-84 (Kreusch, 28.1 ov), 
3-195 (McLaren, 52.3 ov), 4-235 (Symes, 66.2 ov), 5-248 (Koortzen, 70.1 ov), 
6-294 (Bossenger, 83.2 ov), 7-348 (Jeggels, 94.2 ov), 
8-353 (Tshabalala, 97.2 ov), 9-353 (Kruger, 98.3 ov), 
10-353 (Walters, 98.6 ov) 

Bowling         O       M       R       W       Econ  
CB Mpofu        13      3       41      0       3.15  
E Chigumbura    18      4       60      1       3.33  
RW Price        29      5       86      2       2.96  
H Masakadza     4       0       14      0       3.50  
CJ Chibhabha    6       0       34      1       5.66  
T Maruma        10      0       42      1       4.20  
P Utseya        19      3       70      5       3.68 (1w)


Zimbabwe 2nd innings
H Masakadza	c Bossenger b Mjekula		27
V Sibanda	c Walters b Mjekula		0
CJ Chibhabha	c Tshabalala b Walters		17
T Taibu		c Symes b Kruger		78
SC Williams	c Akoojee b Tshabalala		107
KM Dabengwa	run out (Akoojee)		18
E Chigumbura	c Kreusch b Walters		71
P Utseya	b Tshabalala			57
T Maruma	c Tshabalala b Walters		0
RW Price	b Walters			11
CB Mpofu	not out				2
    Extras	(b 2, lb 17, w 8, nb 2)		29					
					
    Total	(all out; 111 overs; 463 mins)	417

Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Sibanda, 1.2 ov), 2-42 (Chibhabha, 13.6 ov), 
3-56 (Masakadza, 18.6 ov), 4-240 (Taibu, 60.3 ov), 5-258 (Williams, 63.1 ov), 
6-270 (Dabengwa, 68.2 ov), 7-364 (Chigumbura, 93.3 ov), 8-364 (Maruma, 93.6 ov), 
9-412 (Utseya, 106.2 ov), 10-417 (Price, 110.6 ov)
							
Bowling		O	M	R	W	Econ	
BD Walters	32	6	114	4	3.56	(2w)
S Mjekula	22	4	86	2	3.90	(1w)
T Tshabalala	27	5	82	2	3.03	(2nb)
AK Kruger	15	2	71	1	4.73	(1w)
JP Kreusch	9	1	23	0	2.55	
J Symes		6	1	22	0	3.66	

South African Composite XI 2nd innings (target: 321 runs)
M Akoojee	c Masakadza b Mpofu		8
JP Kreusch	c Chibhabha b Mpofu		0
PJ Koortzen	lbw b Chibhabha			16
AP McLaren	c Masakadza b Chigumbura	14
J Symes		c Maruma b Utseya		16
RR Jeggels	lbw b Maruma			46
W Bossenger	c Dabengwa b Utseya		46
AK Kruger	c & b Maruma			4
T Tshabalala	b Chibhabha			28
BD Walters	not out				1
S Mjekula	c Maruma b Utseya		0
    Extras	(b 4, lb 3)			7
    Total	(all out; 53.4 overs)		186

Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Kreusch, 0.3 ov), 2-14 (Akoojee, 2.4 ov), 3-34 (Koortzen, 7.2 ov), 
4-55 (Symes, 10.3 ov), 5-69 (McLaren, 13.6 ov), 6-131 (Jeggels, 32.6 ov), 
7-137 (Kruger, 34.2 ov), 8-185 (Bossenger, 51.2 ov), 9-185 (Tshabalala, 52.2 ov), 
10-186 (Mjekula, 53.4 ov)

Bowling		O	M	R	W	Econ	
CB Mpofu	8	1	19	2	2.37	
E Chigumbura	7	0	37	1	5.28	
CJ Chibhabha	9	2	34	2	3.77	
P Utseya	3.4	1	10	3	2.72	
T Maruma	14	3	41	2	2.92	
RW Price	12	0	38	0	3.16

Comments

Sun, 06/01/2008 - 12:32 — jimbo (not verified)

The fact that maruma,utseya and price all played a spinning role may suggest that perhaps the selectors are thinking about playing all of them in pakistan and wanted to get them all match practice to get used to sub-continent conditions or at least get match practice...Pakistan is traditionally spin friendly but if williams plays you have the third spinning role covered..i think we are missing an extra seamer..i know that that fact has been well documented but cannot be stressed enough
Brent may well miss out again in pakistan..But certainly taylor should come back ino the picture in place of dabengwa

Sun, 06/01/2008 - 16:23 — brmtaylor.com admin (not verified)

You can't play 3 specialist spinners in an ODI. Perhaps in a FC match you can get away with playing Mpofu and Chigumbura and having Chibhabha chip in. In an ODI, you need 3 specialists though. Ideally Chigumbura to open the bowling. Brent is very good at opening the bowling... it's a tough pick between him and Mpofu, either could go first change, but I think Mpofu has more of a spearhead about him than Brent and could take more wickets in the opening 10 overs, even if he does concede more runs.

Utseya and Price can cover the remaining overs quite comfortably, and there is also Williams and Chibhabha to turn to.

Mon, 07/01/2008 - 00:45 — Jagdish (not verified)

u say mpofu is a good choice how about the fotgotten rainsford who is a has pace line and lenghth he wont go for two many runs but does pick up key wickets i would lov too see greg strydom back after some good club nocks he should be in the frame too tour pakistan.

Mon, 07/01/2008 - 07:21 — jimbo (not verified)

I was merely trying to tap into the strange logic of the zimbabwe selectors rather than suggesting that they should play three spinners.
Jagdish is right rainsford is the man to go to pakistan..i once held high hopes of an all pace trio of payangara,mpofu and rainsford..Brent however is a very deceptive bowler with an excellent slowere ball..We saw that the 50 runs that he scored against south africa in the ODI shows that even at his age he is an emerging all-rounder

Mon, 07/01/2008 - 10:57 — jimbo (not verified)

If the best side isnt picked on a regular basis then they can forget a test return...The fact that we've gone into self imposed exile twice wont help our case and if we resume test matches with this silly quota issue thing and we keep on getting thumped by putting inferior sides on the pitch ZC have nobody to blame but themselves..Not the ICC not england or the western teams Zimbabwe cricket

This point cannot be emphasised enough

Tue, 08/01/2008 - 04:01 — Jagdish (not verified)

the current selectors are a joke u should pick players on form look at greg strydom who has been in superb form for club bulawayo he should be back in the team how can u play mpofu pich rainford a better choice i would love too see ryan higinns in the tour macthes in pakistan give buttworth a go their lots of guys who desrve their chance.