Seventh-Wicket pair hold out for draw

A dour seventh-wicket partnership by Northerns batsmen denied victory to the Zimbabwe Primary Schools in the representative match that finished the CricInfo Week at Prince Edward School in Harare. In contrast to the rain of the past few days, the players enjoyed a warm, sunny day.

The Zimbabwe team had dominated the match from start to finish but they lacked the bowling power to finish off the powerful South African province. Their most successful player was Glenn Querl, of Springvale School and Mashonaland East, who scored the only century of the tournament on Thursday and followed it up with the second-highest score and the best bowling return today.

Batting on winning the toss, the Zimbabwe team took control of the match with a 96-run opening partnership between captain Stuart Cameron and Gary Ballance, the only Grade 6 player in the team. Manager Graham Brown said: "They batted pretty slowly to begin with; by teatime we had reached just 71." After tea quick runs were needed, and Querl hit a brisk 45 before the declaration at a most satisfactory 194 for six. The most impressive bowler was Northerns' female player, Johmarie Lochtenberg.

"They batted fairly steadily to begin with," said Brown, "lost a couple of wickets and then just had no more runs left in them. I don't think we put enough pressure on them later on, but the guys bowled well." Northerns were facing defeat, but their seventh-wicket pair of Simon Harmer and Shaun Botha dug in for more than half an hour, and were not parted until the final over.

Glenn Querl took four cheap wickets for the Zimbabweans. "He bowled some great balls," commented Brown. "He bowled one guy really well and the caught and bowled was also very good - it was just short of a length, popped up a little and was hit straight back to him. He's medium-fast but when he's really bowling on top form, which now and again he does, he bowls pretty quick. I saw him bowling yesterday and he was very quick.

"It was a great day. There were some talented young players here, and hopefully we will see them come through to the top in about five to ten years."

SCORES: ZIMBABWE 194/6 dec. (G Ballance 38, S Cameron 50, G Querl 45, R Higgins 20; S Harmer 2/60, J Lochtenberg 2/32). NORTHERNS 106/7 (S Harmer 24; G Querl 4/22, S Torr 2/12). Match drawn.