Series thread: ZC Twenty20 Tournament

Scorecard for the Final. The Masakadza, Dabengwa and Strydom show, by the looks of it. On the bowling side, Mboyi has been mentioned as a pace bowler and seems to have a few good performances to his name this tourney.

It has to be Masakadza supplying the scorecards. His Twenty20 average is nearly 70 now!

All of the scorecards are now available on Cricinfo (thanks ZC for providing them), and there are one or two names that are pleasing to see:

Ian Nicolson - the fast bowler who played for North West last year turned out for Southerns in one match. Unfortunately he was very expensive.

http://content-www.cricinfo.com/zimbabw ... 55669.html

Malcolm Waller - son of Andy Waller, played 3 matches for Centrals and batted quite well, averaging nearly 40.

Terrence Duffin - played for Southerns, which is good to see, but his form was ordinary.

With all the stats now, we can see who the top players were:

Hamilton Masakadza - we know he was the top player of the series. He smashed 267 without getting out. If he can make 50 runs in each of his next two innings in South Africa, he will have the highest batting average of any Twenty20 player in the world. If he makes 2 ducks for arguments sake, he will average 59.66 in Twenty20's, making him second on the list overall.

Brendan Taylor - 168 runs at 84.00, 2 fifties, a highest of 85 not out... class act. He and Masakadza should open in South Africa. Would need just over 220 runs in his next 2 matches to become the highest averaging Twenty20 batsman in the world, but if he maintains his current average of 61 for the next couple of games it will be between he and Masakadza for second place. http://stats.cricinfo.com/ci/content/re ... 83855.html

Bradley Staddon - This was a shock. 142 runs at 28.40. A solid performer who managed to be the third highest run scorer for the series.

Nobody really stood out among the bowlers. It was the usual suspects from the national team, although Thabo Mboyi and Admire Manyumwa managed 5 each.

Forster Mutizwa was the standout wicket keeper, with 2.6 dismissals a match. 13 in total.

Game of the series, for mine, was http://content-www.cricinfo.com/zimbabw ... 42327.html which was strangely similar to the win against Australia (Taylor not out, Chigumbura's 4-fer...)

3/227 after 20 overs, Taylor 85*, Chigumbura 62 from 30.

To follow up, Chigumbura ripped through the top order and took 4/14, Price took 3/14.

Apparently Metropolitan Bank are no longer sponsors, and the series is called the Zimbabwe Cricket Twenty20 tournament (ZC T20 for short?) - this is how it is referred to on zimcricket.org anyway...

It starts today, with these fixtures:

Fixtures

Westerns vs Easterns at Harare Sports Club at 9:30 AM (Wed)

Northerns vs Southerns at the Country Club at 9:30 AM (Wed)

Centrals bye

Westerns vs Southerns at Harare Sports Club at 2:00 PM (Wed)

Easterns vs Centrals at the Country Club at 2:00 PM (Wed)

Northerns bye

I can't say I agree with Westerns, Southerns and Easterns each playing twice in one day, but obviously they did what they needed to do...

ZC give a few player names and teams (see below). In italics I have included other likely additions. I'd expect all national team players, as well as those from the SAA series to take part, but beyond what's below I'd just be guessing who they'd be playing for (although I think they would be playing for the same team they did last season). If you see a player on this page, there is a good chance they will be playing, and my guess is most Takashinga players will turn out for the Northerns.

ZC think Northerns are the favourites (maybe with Chakabva, Chigumbura and Taylor they'd be pretty good odds) but I still think Westerns will go for the domestic triple (ZC T20, Logan Cup, Faithwear).

Northerns: Chakabva, Chigumbura (Cremer, Taylor, Price, Kamungozi, ???)

Westerns: Dabengwa (Strydom, Nyumbu, Moyo, Takarusenga, Sean Williams, Matthew Williams, Marsh, Ntuli, ???)

Easterns: Utseya, Masakadza, Matsikenyeri (Maruma, ???)

Centrals: Rainsford ???

Southerns: Brent ???

Hmm the usual dearth of information surrounding domestic cricket. I wonder how the players know when and where to turn up for games and for which side?

Opening day results:

Easterns (168/2; Masakadza 101, Matsikenyeri 37, Mboyi 1/19) beat Westerns (128/9; Mupariwa 26, Mujuru 25, Masakadza 2/34) by 40 runs.

Easterns beat Centrals by 54 runs - no details available.

Northerns beat Southerns by 158 runs - no details available.

Westerns beat Southerns by 58 runs - no details available.

So my completely unofficial table currently looks like this:

1. Easterns

2. Northerns

3. Westerns

4. Centrals

5. Southerns

Kopje wrote:By the way, who sponsors the domestic twenty20 tournament in Zim?

In the very first line of the first post...

Apparently Metropolitan Bank are no longer sponsors, and the series is called the Zimbabwe Cricket Twenty20 tournament (ZC T20 for short?) - this is how it is referred to on zimcricket.org anyway...

Day Two results:

Easterns (93/3; Masakadza 50, Mtizwa 24, Cremer 1/22, Chigumbura 1/31) beat Northerns (92; Taylor 19, Chigumbura 18, Price 14, Utseya 3/14, Jaure 3/22, Masakadza 2/6) by 7 wickets.

Centrals beat Westerns by 6 wickets.

Northerns beat Centrals by 9 wickets.

Easterns beat Southerns by 6 wickets.

Assuming 2 points for a win and 1 for a draw / no result, the unofficial ZimCricketNews table looks like this:
Code: Select all
Pld W L D NR Pts
1 Easterns 4 4 - - - 8
2 Northerns 3 2 1 - - 4
3 Centrals 3 1 2 - - 2
3 Westerns 3 1 2 - - 2
5 Southerns 3 - 3 - - 0

Easterns are a cert for the final; Based on that table, Northerns, Centrals and Westerns are all in with a shout for the other slot (Northerns get it if they beat Westerns; net run-rate otherwise, and I don't have the info to work out the possibilities there). Of course, ZC haven't actually released a points table and could be using some other method, which may change what outcomes are possible.