Eagles – 252-9 in 50.4 overs (Craig Ervine 103, Tadiwanashe Marumani 69, Tinashe Kamunhukamwe 19, Neville Madziva 4/39, Muhammad Adil 3/68, Carl Mumba 1/57)
Rhinos –
Day 1 – Stumps
Craig Ervine and Tadiwanashe Marumani bolstered Eagles on an otherwise difficult day for them in their Logan Cup match against Rhinos at Takashinga Cricket Club on Thursday.
Apart from the two, no other batter could even reach 20 as the side finished the day with an indifferent score of 252 for nine wickets.
Eagles did not begin too badly though, with Tinashe Kamunhukamwe (19) and Nick Welch (16) making an opening partnership of 40.
But then, Neville Madziva had an inspired spell of bowling, taking four wickets in quick succession to reduce them to 53 for four wickets.
At this point Marumani joined Ervine and the two settled into their partnership, taking the score to 120 when Marumani suffered a painful blow on the thigh and had to retire hurt.
However, he returned when the sixth wicket fell at 169, with Ervine still there, and in their second stand of the day added another 68 before Marumani was out for 69 off 86 balls.
Ervine soon followed him, having scored his 17th first-class century, 103 runs off only 117 balls, with 15 fours.
Mohammad Adil did well to dismiss both these leading batters and has taken three wickets in the innings as it subsided to 252 for nine when rain ended play for the day.
Madziva has so far taken his four top-order wickets for 39 runs.
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Tuskers – 312-4 in 89 overs (Clive Madande 93*, Aliakbar Hamid 73*, Tanu Makoni 54; Jalat Khan 2/85, Roy Kaia 1/14, Cuthbert Musoko 1/38)
Southern Rocks –
Day 1 – Stumps
An impressive unbroken fifth-wicket partnership between Aliakbar Hamid, who has 73, and Clive Madande, on 93, put Tuskers in a strong position in their Logan Cup match against Southern Rocks at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo on Thursday.
Tuskers, put in to bat, lost their first three wickets for 70 runs in the morning, Jalat Khan removing Samiullah and Brian Chari in three deliveries.
Tanu Makoni, however, was fighting his way back to form, reaching his fifty, and it was unfortunate when he was forced to retire hurt with 54 runs to his credit.
Milton Shumba helped to restore matters with an innings of 42, but his dismissal at 142 for four brought Hamid and Madande together.
This pair successfully batted out the day, having added 170 runs so far and taken the score past 300.
Madande has been the more aggressive of the two, reaching his 93 off 116 balls, with a six and 10 fours to date, while Hamid has batted more steadily for his 73.
Khan took his two wickets, but has been expensive, while Tendai Chisoro has wheeled away 23 economical overs for only 55 runs, but without any luck in the way of wickets yet.
