Great Zimbabwe Patriots – 131-0 in 10 overs (Tadiwanashe Marumani 78*, Richmond Mutumbami 41*)
Bulawayo Athletic Club – 96-4 in 10 overs (Nkosana Mpofu 31, Brandon Mavuta 28*, Thamsanqa Nunu 26; Luke Jongwe 1/15, Tony Munyonga 1/16, Costa Zhou 1/17)
Great Zimbabwe Patriots won by 35 runs
Another brilliant innings by Tadiwanashe Marumani paved the way for an easy Great Zimbabwe Patriots victory by 35 runs over Bulawayo Athletic Club (BAC) in Wednesday’s first Zim Cyber-City Domestic T10 match at Harare Sports Club.
BAC were made to regret their decision to put Great Zimbabwe in to bat on winning the toss, as their opponents piled up a score of 131 for no wicket, with Marumani scoring 78 of these off only 33 balls and his partner Richmond Mutumbami 41 off 28 balls.
The slaughter began almost immediately, although seven runs off Charlton Tshuma’s first over gave little hint of the devastation to come.
Allan Chigoma, who bowled the second over of the innings, conceded 20 runs, including a six and two fours from Marumani.
Of the six bowlers used, only Tshuma (17 runs off two overs) went for fewer than 20 runs, whether bowling one over or two.
Brandon Mavuta’s experience was a single over for 22 runs, including two sixes and two fours to Marumani.
Marumani hit six sixes and five fours in his innings, while Mutumbami had to be content with one six and four fours.
With such a total against them, BAC had to attack every ball from the start, and as a result quickly lost Nyasha Mayavo, bowled by Luke Jongwe, and Brandon James, run out, both without scoring.
Nkosana Mpofu, 31 off 21 balls, did form a useful partnership with Thamsanqa Nunu, 26 off 12, to take the score to 58 for three in the sixth over, but inevitably they were falling behind the run rate all the time.
Mavuta did his best with 28 not out off 20 balls at the death, but BAC did not have the hitting power of Marumani and the Masvingo-based team was never in danger.
The final score was 96 for four wickets, and Jongwe proved to be the most successful of the bowlers with one wicket for 15 runs in his two overs.
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Harare Kings – 93-7 in 10 overs (Cephas Zhuwao 37, Muhammad Zaheer 27, Saad Khan 13; Daichi Nyandoro 4/9, Nigel Mupurura 2/15, Tinashe Nenhunzi 1/30)
Takashinga Patriots 2 – 49-8 in 10 overs (Tendai Nyamayaro 12, Cunningham Ncube 9, Nyasha Chivore 6; Dylan Hondo 3/10, Ahsan Ali 2/7, Manson Chikowero 2/10)
Harare Kings won by 44 runs
Cephas Zhuwao at last found his form in the format of the game that should suit him best, and his 37 gave Harare Kings a good start in their match against Takashinga Patriots 2 that resulted in their eventual victory by 44 runs.
Harare Kings decided to bat on winning the toss, and they had very mixed fortunes.
Tarisai Musakanda went out in the first over, caught off Tinashe Nenhunzi without scoring, and Sikandar Raza was this time round caught off Nigel Mupurura for seven.
On the credit side, Zhuwao played his best innings of the tournament to date, smashing 37 off 13 balls, with two sixes and four fours, so that when he was out to Mupurura at the end of the fourth over the score was 46 for four.
Mohammad Zaheer hit 27 off 17 balls, while Saad Khan scored 13 off 14, but was unable to give the innings the final thrust at the death.
Three wickets fell in the final over bowled by Daichi Nyandoro, for a single run among them, and Kings finished on 93 for seven wickets.
Nyandoro finished with four wickets for nine runs in his two overs, but Mupurura arguably did an even more valuable job, for with two for 15 he removed both Raza and Zhuwao.
Takashinga Patriots 2 lost the wicket of Tariro Mukauyo (1), lbw to Faraz Akram in the first over.
Nyandoro (4) and Cunningham Ncube (9) put on 16 for the second wicket, but that was as good as it got for the inexperienced second-team players, as more wickets went down at regular intervals.
Tendai Nyamayaro, with 12 off 12 balls, was the only batter to reach double figures and after 10 overs the score had reached only 49 for eight wickets.
Dylan Hondo took three wickets for 10 runs and Manson Chikowero two for 10.
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Gladiators – 106-6 in 10 overs (Ashley Mufandauya 37, Lennox Tinoda 20, Tinashe Chimbambo 20; Shingi Masakadza 3/11, Richard Ngarava 1/14, Privilege Chesa 1/27)
Takashinga Patriots 1 – 110-7 in 9.5 overs (Richard Ngarava 45, Chamu Chibhabha 19, Alvin Chiradza 18*; Masimba Marovatsanga 5/16, Owen Muzondo 1/16, Tatenda Matimbe 1/17)
Takashinga Patriots 1 won by three wickets
In a thrilling finish to the final match of the day, Alvin Chiradza of Takashinga Patriots 1 hit 14 runs off the final over against Gladiators to take his team to a remarkable victory with just one delivery to spare.
There was plenty of excitement throughout the match as the initiative moved from one team to the other after Gladiators won the toss and decided to bat.
Wessly Madhevere hit the first ball of the Gladiators innings, from Richard Ngarava, for four and was bowled by the second.
His partner Ashley Mufandauya was in fine form, though, despite not getting much of the bowling, and hit up 37 off 17 balls, with two sixes and five fours.
Tinashe Chimbambo supported him well with 20, but after Mufandauya’s dismissal at 83 the innings rather trailed off, despite a few good hits from Lennox Chando with 20 not out off 10 balls.
The final score of 106 for six wickets was quite good, but not as high as Gladiators may have hoped for.
Shingi Masakadza was mainly responsible for the poor finish, as he took three wickets for 11 runs, while Ngarava took one for 14.
The other three bowlers of the side all went for 24 runs or more.
By coincidence, Takashinga started their innings just as Gladiators had started theirs: Tinashe Kamunhukamwe hit the first ball, from Masimba Marovatsanga, for four, only to be bowled by the second.
Baxton Gopito was caught off the third, and when at 19 Takudzwanashe Kaitano was caught for seven off Owen Muzondo, Takashinga were in real trouble.
Then Ngarava came in and let fly at everything, with Chamu Chibhabha at the other end being quite put in the shade.
Off 18 balls Ngarava slogged 45 runs, including two sixes and seven fours, and looked like winning the match off his own bat.
But then Marovatsanga returned and with his first ball bowled out Ngarava with the total at 79.
In the same over he had Chibhabha caught for 19, having faced only 12 balls but hit two sixes, and then finally trapped Shingi Masakadza lbw for seven – nine runs and three wickets in one eventful over.
Off the final two overs Takashinga needed 19 runs to win and a thrilling finish was in prospect.
Tanaka Chivanga was caught off Tatenda Matimbe for one, seven runs coming from the over and 12 needed from the final over.
Now Chiradza stood up to be counted.
Phase Mukabeta was the bowler and his second ball was a wide – Chiradza hit him for three twos and a four off consecutive deliveries to make the scores level with two balls in hand.
He hit the fifth ball down to third man and took Takashinga to a glorious victory with one delivery to spare, the final score being 110 for seven wickets.
It was Ngarava’s great hitting that had made victory possible, and Chiradza, who finished with 18 not out off nine balls, who completed it.
The great finish quite overshadowed the remarkable bowling figures of Marovatsanga, who took five vital wickets in his two overs for 16 runs.
ZIM CYBER-CITY DOMESTIC T10 POINTS TABLE
| TEAM | M | W | L | T | N/R | PT | NRR |
| Great Zimbabwe | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 3.780 |
| Harare Kings | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 1.670 |
| Takashinga Patriots 1 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1.058 |
| Lions | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0.681 |
| Westside | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | -0.258 |
| Gladiators | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -1.164 |
| Bulawayo Athletic Club | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -2.658 |
| Takashinga Patriots 2 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -3.526 |
