Mutizwa's best sets up Mashonaland

Mashonaland Eagles consolidated their position at the top of the table with a six-wicket victory against Mid West Rhinos at Harare Sports Club. Their success was centred on impressive performances from Forster Mutizwa, who hit a career-best 190, and Elton Chigumbura's seven wickets in the match.

Mid West were put into bat and almost half their total came from the bat of Vusi Sibanda as he struck 153. The next highest score was Graeme Cremer's 36 as a number of top order batsmen departed after getting themselves in. The captain Chigumbura and Trevor Garwe shared six wickets to keep the innings under control and the last four wickets fell for one run.

Mutizwa's commanding innings then helped Mashonaland build a first-innings lead of 94 which proved vital. He struck 20 fours and two sixes in his 272-ball effort, sharing a second-wicket stand of 188 with Samuel Mwakayeni (70). Like with Mid West's innings, a series of batsmen didn't convert their early starts and from 336 for 3 a final total of 446 fell some way short of expectation.

However, the lead soon grew in significance when Chigumbura struck with the first ball of Mid West's second innings and the home side continued to chip away. The main resistance came from Max Waller (54) and Cremer (61) as they added 97 for the sixth wicket, but both fell to Chigumbura during a crucial phase on the final morning. Ray Price, the left-arm spinner, also played a key role with 26 suffocating overs and three wickets.

Needing 176 on the final after, Mashonaland were always ahead of the rate after the openers, Mwakayeni and Tafadzwa Mufambisi, added 75 in 17 overs as the target was knocked off in 34 overs.

Southern Rocks and Mountaineers never threatened to produce a result after the opening day was washed out at Masvingo Sports Club but two young offspinners took their chance to impress. Hilary Matanga took 5 for 98 before Timycen Maruma responded with 6 for 100 as Mountaineers shaded the points advantage.

Mountaineers' first innings was a ground-out affair as they plodded along at around two-and-a-half an over against some accurate bowling. Stuart Matsikenyeri was the main contributor with 97 and the lower order also provided some useful runs.

In reply, Southern Rocks struggled against Maruma who removed the top three. Steve Tikolo (47) and Craig Ervine (63), the brother of former Zimbabwe allrounder Sean, added 95 but the innings folded away as Mountaineers took a lead of 113 and then batted out time to reach 145 for 4.