Bennett ton earns Mountaineers a draw in final Logan Cup game

Mega Market Mountaineers – 320 and 401-9 declared in 128 overs (Brian Bennett 104, Dion Myers 83, Kevin Kasuza 75; Tanatswa Bechani 4/133, Nkosana Mpofu 2/36, Mgcini Dube 1/16)

Tuskers – 434 and 53-2 in 19.4 overs (Nkosana Mpofu 28*, Tafara Mupariwa 10, Munashe Chimusoro 8*; Definate Mawadzi 2/14)

Match drawn

A maiden first-class century from Brian Bennett earned Mega Market Mountaineers a draw on the final day of their Logan Cup match against Tuskers at Old Hararians Sports Club on Saturday.

Mountaineers began the day with a score of 253 for five wickets in their second innings, 139 runs ahead of Tuskers, with Bennett oo 57 and Donald Tiripano on nine.

Tiripano played a very dogged innings, which was good support for Bennett, but his 32 lasted for over two hours and took him 110 balls.

Clive Chitumba replaced him and scored a much more fluent 34 off 47 balls, while Bennett reached his hard-earned century and was then out for 104, with two sixes and 16 fours off 182 balls.

Tinashe Muchawaya weighed in with 36, and Mountaineers waited until the last pair took the score past 400 for another batting bonus point before they declared with nine wickets down for 401.

Tanatswa Bechani was the most successful of the Tuskers bowlers, taking four wickets for 133 runs.

Tuskers were set 288 to win in a maximum of 38 overs, a required run rate of over seven runs an over, and they could only play for a draw.

The result would have been the same anyway, as the light deteriorated and soon after tea the umpires called a halt to play, with Tuskers having scored 53 for two wickets in the 20th over – the opening batter Nkosana Mpofu was on 28 not out.

Play was finally abandoned for the day just before 4pm.

Mountaineers had calculated correctly and scored just enough bonus points to finish third, ahead of Tuskers, in the 2022/23 Logan Cup tournament, as shown in the table below.

As far as points were concerned, it was a close competition among the top four teams, with the fourth-placed Tuskers earning 110 points, while the champions Eagles amassed 122.

Eagles recorded three victories and only one defeat to lift the Logan Cup.

2022/23 LOGAN CUP POINTS TABLE