Academy has better of Day 1

Thanks to some rather disappointing Matabele batting, the CFX Academy could claim to have had rather the better of the first day's play between the two teams at Country Club in Harare today. Although Matabeleland fought back well with the ball after their dismissal for 176, a promising third-wicket partnership was in progress when play came to a premature close with the Academy on 62 for two in reply.

The match is being played on the new part of the square, and Paul Strang, winning the toss for the Academy, decided to bat first mainly because he was unsure of how it would play. It generally proved trustworthy, although several balls from one end did keep low. Matabeleland were missing captain Mark Abrams, for personal reasons, so Mark Vermeulen again took over the leadership. John Rennie had still not recovered from his injury and Paul Brown was omitted; Matthew Townshend and Shaun Commerford returned, while left-arm spinner Keith Dabengwa made his first-class debut.

Charles Coventry and Wisdom Siziba opened in their usual way for Matabeleland, the former going for his strokes while the latter held his end up. Siziba fell in the fourth over without scoring, however, adjudged lbw to a good ball from Gregg Haakonsen. For a while Coventry and Vermeulen kept the runs flowing, but when the Academy tightened up their bowling and put back their fielders runs were harder to come by. The Academy attack soon lost Jason Young, who strained his foot while bowling his fifth over and was forced to leave the field. Vermeulen it seems has a habit of losing patience when tied down, and he duly cut a ball from Haakonsen straight to Vaughan-Davies at backward point to be caught for 19.

Coventry appeared to be heading for a maiden first-class fifty, playing some lovely drives, but he too seemed to become impatient when the runs did not flow, and on 42 he drove a low return catch that was smartly held by Douglas Hondo. Two batsmen had settled in but given their wickets away without going on to a major score. Dion Ebrahim and Senyo Nyakutse settled in until lunch, when the score was 84 for three (Ebrahim 9, Nyakutse 5).

Soon after the break Strang, flighting the ball, tempted Nyakutse (6), who drove powerfully and was caught overhead at mid-on by Travis Friend. Ebrahim (26) was adjudged lbw to a faster ball from Greg Lamb, and Matabeleland were struggling at 114 for five. Then came a useful partnership between Warren Gilmour (31) and Ian Engelbrecht (19), who settled in well and played the bowling on its merits for a while. Gilmour looked particularly impressive square of the wicket, pulling and cutting with excellent timing. But, like his predecessors, he failed to capitalise on a good start, flicking Mahachi uppishly off his toes to hit a catch straight at Alester Maregwede at midwicket, after a partnership of 46.

This was the beginning of the end for Matabeleland, as wickets tumbled in quick succession. Engelbrecht, who had batted so well, swung at a yorker from Friend and chopped it on to his stumps, while Commerford fell lbw to the same bowler without scoring. Townshend again appeared ready to rescue a Matabeleland innings, but his tail-end partners were not. Jason Hitz (4) skyed a catch to long-off where Vaughan-Davies took the catch, while Dabengwa (1), who appeared bamboozled by Strang, played across the line to get a leading edge and give Strang a simple return catch, leaving Townshend unbeaten on 11.

Matabeleland were all out a few minutes before team, and manager Derrick Townshend was scathing of his team's 'irresponsible batting', which he felt was indicative of a one-day mentality still.

However, when the Academy went in to bat the Matabeleland opening bowlers Townshend and Commerford looked determined to atone for their team's sins at the crease. They bowled with fire and determination, making the ball lift at times and making life most uncomfortable for openers Maregwede and Vaughan-Davies. The latter scored three before being caught by Ebrahim at first slip off Commerford, and new batsman Richard Sims failed to score before being caught at the wicket off Townshend, which reduced the Academy to 10 for two.

Maregwede and Lamb weathered the storm with fine determination and some good positive play, keeping the score moving and driving anything overpitched well. They were helped when Townshend suffered a recurrence of his leg injury and had to leave the field. They had just brought up the fifty partnership with the most convincing batting of the day when a light rain began to fall and the light deteriorated significantly. With thunder and lightning not far away, the players left the field at about 4.45pm with the score on 62 for two (Maregwede 22, Lamb 31).