Rocks beat Rhinos to keep battle for place in final alive

Rhinos – 211 all out in 49.2 overs (Brandon Mavuta 53, Prince Masvaure 39, Antum Naqvi 27; Tendai Chisoro 3/19, Roy Kaia 2/26, Dom Bess 2/32)

Southern Rocks – 217-8 in 42.3 overs (Johnathan Campbell 50, Dom Bess 49, Trevor Gwandu 19*; Muhammad Adil 3/37, Simon Mugava 2/35, Brandon Mavuta 2/61)

Southern Rocks won by two wickets

An innings of 50 from Johnathan Campbell and 49 from the England spin-bowling all-rounder Dom Bess helped Southern Rocks to snatch an unexpected two-wicket victory over Rhinos in their Pro50 Championship match at Kwekwe Sports Club on Friday.

Rhinos, put in to bat, made a useful start.

Takudzwanashe Kaitano was out for a brisk 19, but Prince Masvaure and Antum Naqvi settled into a good partnership, and 70 runs were on the board for only one wicket in the 17th over.

At this point Naqvi was caught off Bess for 27, and suddenly Rhinos went into collapse mode.

In quick succession they lost Ben Curran (1), Nyasha Mayavo (2) – both to Tendai Chisoro – and Patrick Rowe (1), and five were gone for 79 in the 24th over.

Masvaure decided it was time to batten down the hatches and hang on to his wicket grimly, but Brandon Mavuta showed good form and began to score well.

Masvaure’s cautious innings of 39 off 93 balls ended with a catch off Roy Kaia at 111, but Tashinga Musekiwa put on some good aggressive runs with Mavuta before he was out for 26.

Mavuta reached his fifty before being caught off Bess for 53 having faced 68 balls.

Nine were out for 175, but the last pair of Muhammad Adil (18 not out) and Mike Chinouya (15) added a valuable 36 runs so that Rhinos were all out for 211 in the final over.

Chisoro was the most successful bowler, returning the excellent figures of three wickets for only 19 runs off his 10 overs, while there were two each for Jalat Khan, Bess and Kaia.

Rocks too made a useful start to their innings, with Cephas Zhuwao (19 off 19 balls) and Jayden Schadendorf (23 off 28) scoring 41 together, only for their fourth wicket to fall at 53, with Kaia out for one and Richmond Mutumbami for five.

Tafadzwa Tsiga made a brief stand with Campbell, scoring 19, but the situation looked bad for Rocks when he was fifth man out at 82 after 19 overs.

Then the situation began to change as Bess joined Campbell and started to take on the bowlers with some good hitting.

In 14 overs they more than doubled the score, taking it to 157 before Campbell went immediately after reaching his fifty, having faced 62 balls with a six and five fours.

Bess also was not destined to take his team home, falling soon after, bowled by Adil for 49 off 55 balls (six fours) – 181 for seven.

Victory was still not assured, but this pair had made it possible with their fine batting.

The job was completed by William Mashinge and Trevor Gwandu, who scored 18 and 19, both not out, respectively, Gwandu hitting Masvaure for six to end the match.

Adil was Rhinos’ most successful bowler, taking three wickets for 37 runs.

Rocks and Rhinos are now equal on points, with the winner of their final round-robin match on Sunday going to meet Eagles in the Pro50 Championship final.

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Tuskers – 195-8 in 50 overs (Aliakbar Hamid 48, Dalubuhle Mboyi 37, Nkosana Mpofu 25; Tony Munyonga 3/29, Hendricks Macheke 2/30, Donald Tiripano 1/22)

Mountaineers – 199-5 in 39.4 overs (Tony Munyonga 59, Brian Bennett 58*, Joylord Gumbie 34; Ainsley Ndlovu 2/25, Tanatswa Bechani 1/32, Sheu Musekwa 1/47)

Mountaineers won by five wickets

A good all-round performance from Tony Munyonga, a fifty and three wickets, was the key factor in Mountaineers’ comfortable five-wicket victory over Tuskers in their Pro50 Championship match at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo on Friday.

Tuskers, opting to bat on their home ground, batted inconsistently and only once did they really get on top of the Mountaineers bowling.

Their first four wickets went down for 59 in 15 overs, with Nkosana Mpofu’s 25 the only significant score.

Then came their one good partnership, as Hamid Ali and the wicket-keeper Dalubuhle Mboyi put on 91 for the fifth wicket, although it took them 28 overs to do so.

Ali, the more aggressive, made his team’s top score of 48 off 91 balls, and only three balls after his dismissal Mboyi went as well, for 37 off 86 balls – both were dismissed by Munyonga.

Tanatswa Bechani hit out gallantly to finish the Tuskers innings with 24 not out off 22 balls, but the team must have been disappointed that they could not muster even 200 runs off their 50 overs – their final score was 195 for eight wickets.

Munyonga only bowled six overs, but he took three wickets for 29 runs, while Hendricks Macheke took two wickets.

Mountaineers had none too difficult a target to achieve, but they lost the wicket of Definate Mawadzi in the first over, bowled out by Sheu Musekwa.

Then followed the vital partnership, as Joylord Gumbie scored 34 in a 93-run partnership with Munyonga in less than 15 overs.

Munyonga was the first out, for a powerful attacking innings of 59, with a six and 10 fours, off 41 balls.

Gumbie was out at 103, and then followed another good partnership of 59 in 13 overs between Brian Bennett and Dane Schadendorf.

Schadendorf was the faster scorer with 33 before he left at 162 for four, but without many runs coming from his next partners Bennett kept scoring steadily and reached a good fifty.

Two fours off Bechani then took him to 58 not out, scored off 70 balls with five fours, and gave Mountaineers their victory.

Ainsley Ndlovu was the pick of the bowlers, bowling his 10 overs for two wickets and only 25 runs.

PRO50 CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS TABLE