Zimbabwe schools - St John's College report

ST JOHNS VERSUS LOMAGUNDI, 15 JANUARY

Rain prevented any play in Harare for the 2nd Xl, U.16b, U.15b and U.14b but the 1st Xl and all the A teams played out at Lomagundi.

FIRST XI MATCH

Lomagundi won the toss and sent St Johns in to bat on a wicket which was soft on top and obviously batting would be difficult. Lomagundi were missing the services of Sean Ervine who is in Sri Lanka with the Zimbabwe Under-19 World Cup team and though the opening attack was accurate they were not able to break through against openers Gavin Thorn and Richard Caldecott who were prepared to wait for the bad ball. Initial progress was slow due to tight bowling and good fielding and the first breakthrough came with the score on 59 in the 21st over when Gavin Thorn came down the wicket to Lomagundi skipper Mike Hartley and was well stumped by wicketkeeper Glen Goosen. Caldecott found good support from Michael Brundle and the two Zimbabwe Under-16 batsmen were able to step up the run rate as the wicket got firmer and scoring became easier. Captain Stephen Wright hit a quick 22 as St Johns declared on 212-6, setting Lomagundi a target of just over four runs an over for victory.

Lomagundi made a good start in pursuit of victory with Glen Goosen in particular being very severe on anything loose until first change bowler Steven Cardoso deceived him with a delivery that held back a little and was able to take a return catch off a leading edge. The departure of experienced batsman Mike Hartley to the same bowler soon afterwards meant that an uphill task lay ahead of the Lomagundi batsmen, most of whom were inexperienced at 1st X1 level. The St Johns bowlers backed up by tight fielding had Lomagundi at 64-4 but a fifth-wicket partnership developed between C. Manning and S. Saint which brought up the 100. It was frustrating the St Johns drive for victory when Saint in attempting a pull shot misjudged the pace of the ball which came off the bat and hit him in the face and he had to retire hurt to get stitches for a bad cut above the right eye.

The game was now in the final compulsory 20 overs and seamer Andrew Hough and leg spinner Stephen Wright aided by some good catches close to the wicket picked up wickets as the game headed for a tight finish with eight St Johns fielders clustered around the bat. The ninth wicket fell off the last ball of the 19th over but Saint had returned from the school hospital and was able to occupy the non-striker's end while A. Forbes was able to play out a final tense over to earn a draw.

A good game of cricket for both sides considering that it was the first week back at school and practices had been severely curtailed by the weather.

SCORES

ST. JOHNS 212/6 (R. Caldecott 61, M. Brundle 42, S. Wright 22, S. Carrihill 22*; T. Benade 26-2-44-1, R. Holmes 17-1-59-1). LOMAGUNDI 117/9 (G. Goosen 30, S. Saint 28*; A. Hough 9-3-12-3, S. Cardoso 8-1-18-3, S. Wright 12-4-36-2). Match drawn.

OTHER SCORES

UNDER-16A: ST. JOHNS 98 (S. Jones 23, B. Taylor 20; Kockott 7-2-9-4, Ervine 15-8-16-2). LOMAGUNDI 52 (D. Bradshaw 11-4-17-3, M. Burt 5-2-8-3, M. Fynn 9-3-10-3). St Johns won by 46 runs.

UNDER 15 A: ST. JOHNS 233 (G. Ziegler 89, M. Newbould 30, R. Hodgson 23; Paul 15-1-45-4, D. Meikle 7-0-25-2). LOMAGUNDI 31 (M. Passaportis 8-6-2-6, B. Logue 5-4-1-3). St Johns won by 202 runs.

UNDER 14 A: LOMAGUNDI 154 (R. Benade 108*). ST. JOHNS 68. Lomagundi won by 86 runs.