Zimbabwe Board XI limp to victory in Bowl match.

Mutare Sports Club; Sunday 26 November 2000

A somewhat overconfident Zimbabwe Board XI limped to a two-wicket victory over Easterns at Mutare Sports Club. The highlight of the match was a blistering 73 by the home captain Gus Mackay, but his team-mates gave him little batting support and in the end his team had to fight hard after their bowlers had done well to dismiss Easterns for 142.

Easterns batted on winning the toss. Derek Brand hit the first two balls of the match from David Mutendera sweetly through the covers, but the thick outfield turned two deserved fours into a total of five. At the other end he was adjudged lbw to Gus Mackay, the Board XI's third captain in four matches after the previous skippers Gavin Rennie and Dirk Viljoen had been called to the international arena.

After this the Board XI seamers kept a tight rein on the visiting batsmen and they were never able to take control. A good third-wicket partnership looked to be developing between opener Johan Uys and captain Anthony Pollock, who hit one thunderous cover drive reminiscent of his renowned father Graeme. But Uys (23) hit a hard low catch to Mackay at mid-on off Pommie Mbangwa and Easterns 43 for three. Pollock was to be the top scorer with 30 as Easterns never really recovered. They could muster a total of only 142. Ray Price returned the best figures of three for 25 from the lower and middle order while Pommie Mbangwa conceded just 10 runs for two wickets from his six overs.

With the aggressive Mackay opening the Board XI batting, the match could have been over almost within the hour. Mackay waited as long as the third over before swatting a six over midwicket; others followed, in the arc between midwicket and extra cover. A mistimed slash to the cover boundary brought him his fifty off 31 balls, after which he began to open out a bit. Another four through extra cover and an off-driven six followed in the same over; two overs later came two successive sixes, straight and over long-on. When he was finally yorked by Brand he had scored 73 off 44 balls (7 sixes and 4 fours), and the score was 92 for three.

His big hitting rather obscured the ineffectiveness of the other top-order batsmen, who failed to knuckle down and apply themselves. Six wickets were down for 11 and seven for 130, but Dion Ebrahim, scorer of a century in the three-day match, kept his nerve and saw his team home with an unbeaten 15. Easterns' most successful bowler was captain Anthony Pollock, whose medium-pacers took three for 25.