Vigne Cup round 6

Alex too strong for HSC, but OGs still in front

Alexandra Cricket Club earned a convincing victory over Harare Sports Club on Sunday in the sixth round of the Mashonaland Vigne Cup cricket league competition to keep the pressure on log leaders Old Georgians, whilst Universals defeated Old Hararians to notch just their second win in six matches in the league this season.

All of the teams were missing regulars due to selections to Zimbabwe representative sides and also through injuries, and this robbed the matches of some glamour.

At Harare Sports Club, the hosts, who have struggled in their last few matches, were up against a confident Alex side that have won their last five matches in both the Vigne Cup and the National League. Batting first after winning the toss, Sports Club struck immediately with the run out of Jason Vaughan-Davies for a duck, but Liddell and Goosen settled down and grafted Alex out of trouble, despite the new ball attack of Eddo Brandes and fit-again speedster Brighton Watambwa. Neither Liddell nor Goosen were able to push on for a big score. Spinners Paul Brous and Gavin Johnston-Robertson caused some damage in the middle order, and Brandes returned to the attack to threaten the tail, but a valiant stand by stand-in skipper Brous and number 10 Craig Anticevich ensured that Alex posted a respectable total.

Batting has been the weakness of Sports Club all season, despite promising young Academy batsmen such as Neil Ferreira, Kingsley Went and Richard Croxford in the top order, and once again this was the case on Sunday. The top five batsmen could only score 64 runs between them, with 53 of those scored by Thorne. The tail wagged to some extent, thanks to Brighton Watambwa, but the damage had been done and Alex cruised to a 60-run victory.

At Groombridge, log leaders Old Georgians came up against Winstonians in the closest match of the weekend. The Winstonians batting has improved with each match this season and it was Hamilton Masakadza who demonstrated this with a fluent 88 to dominate the Winstonian innings of 226 all out. Masakadza received support from Stuart Matsikanyere, Tatenda Taibu, Manyande and Wilson Chawaguta. The total looked a little on the low side even though OGs were without Craig Wishart and Craig Evans. The Winstonians bowling attack lacked sufficient penetration to exert enough pressure on OGs who were able to establish important early partnerships and remain ahead of the required run rate with wickets in hand. Opener Andre Neethling looked set to bat through the innings until he was run out, and Gus Mackay weighed in with 46 as OGs won by four wickets with five overs to spare.

Old Hararians tumbled to their third defeat of the competition when they went down to bottom of the log Universals. Both teams were forced to field virtually second-string sides in a match that never rose to any great heights. Universals dismissed OH for a paltry 162 in 42 overs, with only Richard Simms and Gary Brent able to trouble the scorers for any great length of time. Darlington Matambanadzo and David Mutendera bowled economically and rattled the OH top order, but it was the spinning Adams brothers Hamid and Shezar who wrapped up the innings with combined figures of 7/51 off 15 overs.

Universals started their reply uncertainly, losing Ali Shah for 6 and Alester Maragwede for 18, but Hamid Adam and Darlington Matambanadzo came together to put the result beyond doubt, and Universals won by five wickets with more than 10 overs to spare.

This weekend sees the last Vigne Cup matches until February, as the national league resumes for the interim.