Manicaland draw in Mutara after Siziba's 50

The captains agreed to call this game off half an hour after tea on day four after satisfying themselves that no result was possible. Opening batsman Stuart Walker top-scored with 75 and together with fellow opener Siziba (50) ensured Manicaland had an impossible task once they were finally separated.

75 mm of overnight rain and steady morning drizzle prevented play from starting before lunch, substantially reducing Manicaland's chances of victory. Three full sessions were lost over the four days and on such an easy batting pitch Manicaland were always going to struggle to do the job twice.

Nine bowlers were tried in increasingly desperate attempts to get the break-through. Medium-pacer Leon Soma even tried a spell of brisk leg-breaks. In a side packed with part-timers they might easily have gone to Tino Mawoyo as well had time permitted. His tidy little "dobbers" have got wickets before. All nine bowled with skill but were forced to concede defeat to a pitch that has frustrated generations of bowlers coming into this match. In a game played mostly in good spirits it was evident that the bonhomie of old pro Alistair Campbell was sorely tested in the closing stages as his spinners were dead-batted without alarm.

Manicaland's ZCU Administrator Kevan Barbour, watching the game from the clubhouse, was moved to announce a proposed winter top-dressing/scarifying face-lift for the pitch. Three double centuries have been scored this season alone and Paul Strang would surely have added a fourth on Saturday had he not been following orders to bash. Indications are that such previously tried tinkering will solve little in the long term - the time for radical surgery has arrived.