Mashonaland hold advantage in Logan Final

Mashonaland, the favourites, held an advantage at the end of the first of three days' play in the Logan Cup final against Manicaland, although they should have done better and would have done much worse had the opposition held their catches. They totalled 345, gaining three batting points against Manicaland's four for bowling, but failed to part the Manicaland openers in seven overs before the close.

Manicaland, the underdogs, were forced to play a weakened team, which included four schoolboys, as the Brents and Whittalls were all missing: Jon Brent abroad, Gary and Guy Whittall in the West Indies and Andrew Whittall unfit with a badly swollen finger. Mashonaland had lost Dirk Viljoen to the West Indies, but gained Trevor Gripper and Bryan Strang who had returned.

On a heavily overcast day, with rain a strong possibility at some stage, Manicaland put Mashonaland in to bat on winning the toss, hoping for the usual life in the Harare Sports Club pitch. It proved to be quite a good batting pitch, though, although the bowlers did get some early life when they put it on the spot. Unfortunately that was all too infrequently. Leon Soma in particular proved inaccurate, and the Manicaland bowlers in general sent down too many short, wide balls. Openers Gavin Rennie and Gripper, not usually known for his fast scoring, were able to play themselves in with ease, and most of the early runs came from pulls and cuts off rank bad balls.

To make matters worse Manicaland, perhaps overcome by the occasion, dropped four catches during the morning session, three of them offered by Gripper. Rennie had much less luck, eventually falling to the second chance he gave, caught in the covers just before lunch by Patrick Gada off captain Mark Burmester for 52. The opening stand was worth 126 and already the sound of nails hammered into the Manicaland coffin could be heard. Off-spinner Steve Lawson bowled a good spell before lunch, despite being hit for six over long-on by Gripper, and had the same batsman dropped at the wicket off an inside edge, a hard chance. At lunch Mashonaland went in on 134 for one (Gripper 68, Darlington Matambanadzo 5).

The score progressed steadily after the interval, helped by some more short balls from Soma down the leg side, giving the batsmen hooking practice which they gratefully accepted. Matambanadzo also played some good-looking front-foot drives. Then suddenly Soma pitched one up on the off stump, got it to move away, and Gripper (86) snicked it to Neil Ferreira behind the stumps. Dan Peacock failed to make good use of his promotion to number four, playing over a yorker from Lawson to be bowled without scoring; Mashonaland 164 for three.

Manicaland could have followed it up with the wicket of Evans on 10, just after he had hit Lawson for six over wide long-on - but he was dropped twice off successive balls from Lawson in the cover region. He celebrated with a six right into the Keg and Maiden, the restaurant situated in the clubhouse. Matambanadzo had virtually dried up since losing Gripper, but he eventually enabled Manicaland to improve their shocking catching percentage by hitting half-heartedly at Patrick Gada, to be caught off the outside edge in the covers by Jason Sparrow. He made 22, with the score 196 for four.

At this stage it looked as if Manicaland might break through, with all the leading batsmen gone, but their bowling failed to press home the advantage. The two leg-spinners, Terry Denyer and Hamilton Masakadza, were wayward, especially in direction, and the batsmen piled in. Brad Robinson looked more confident at six than at the top of the order, while Don Campbell, ungainly to start with as he often is, quickly used his reach to take heavy toll of the bad deliveries, especially on the leg side. Tea came with Mashonaland pressing forward again on 252 for five (Robinson 20, Campbell 35).

After tea Campbell ran to his fifty, but was then superbly caught by Denyer at mid-off while trying to hit over the top. Manicaland throughout this period kept most of their fielders in the ring, with few on the boundary, which allowed the batsmen to get away with several rather poor-looking hits over the top. Gus Mackay would settle for nothing like this, but he did play himself in with great care against Masakadza before lashing Gada over long-off for six. Trying to pull Soma, though, he found the top edge and Masakadza held a high catch at midwicket. He had made 16 out of 311 for seven.

Robinson batted on, waiting for the loose ball, and could have made a high score until he was surprised by a well-pitched ball from Soma that broke through his defences and shattered his stumps for 61. The innings began to fade, with Strang looking aggressive but unable to take the bowling apart as he likes to do, and Anton Hoffman (0), trying to glide Burmester, nudging a low catch that was well held by the keeper. This ninth wicket, for 337, was Manicaland's fourth bowling point; now they had to bowl out Mashonaland for less than 350 to stay ahead on points.

Everton Matambanadzo, with some lusty blows, looked ready to do the job himself and got one of his swishes away to the square-leg boundary. Strang stepped down the pitch to Soma and tried to swing him over the leg boundary, only for the ball to fly off the edge and give him two backward of point. Two balls later he tried it again, only to send up a massive skyer towards mid-on, where Brian James gamely staggered under it and finally held it safely. Mashonaland were all out for 345; now the Manica batting would be tested.

Manicaland had a minimum of eight overs to survive, and they played out seven before accepting the offer of bad light, playing through some not unduly accurate bowling from Mackay and Strang, together with a few superfluous words from the former. The total at the close was eight without loss, Ferreira on 4 and Masakadza on 3.