By John Ward

Another week, another Test match - and another heavy defeat by Zimbabwe. It was a familiar story, too, of competing very well up to a point but being unable to sustain the pressure.

Once again it was the eighth wicket that swung the match against Zimbabwe. That particular wicket time and again has proved to be Zimbabwe's nemesis, the point at which they lose their grip. Most notably we had Wasim Akram and Saqlain Mushtaq adding a world Test record 313 for it just over three years ago. Then this season we had Steve Waugh and Damien Fleming for Australia, and Mark Boucher and Shaun Pollock for South Africa recording century partnerships for the eighth wicket that took the match out of Zimbabwe's reach. Now we have Jimmy Adams and Franklyn Rose doing the same thing for the West Indies.

"This Logan Cup competition can already be classed as a resounding success. Many players are having their first real experience of three-day cricket and are thus on a steep upwards learning curve. The competition has been dominated by a few players who are clearly a class above the rest, and many players are not yet of first-class standard - some it must be stated never will be - but this is a start. Manicaland and Midlands have been introduced to first-class competition for the first time, and it is arousing great interest in both these areas."
[More | Zimbabwe in the West Indies | Logan Cup]

THE PLAYER'S VIEW

Craig Evans on a record-breaking Logan Cup match

Craig Evans (153) and Dirk Viljoen (173 not out) set a new record for all Zimbabwean partnerships when they added 330 together for the fourth wicket for Mashonaland against Matabeleland in the recent Logan Cup match at Bulawayo Athletic Club. Here Craig talks to John Ward about the match.

"Well, we lost the toss, which wasn't great for us; we wanted to bowl first, but we ended up batting first. We didn't bat very well all round; we threw our wickets away, me included. Then we came back and we bowled pretty well at them; I thought we bowled very well, and ended up 80 runs behind. We lost a few quick wickets in the second innings, but we knew we had to get a lead of around 180 or 200 with a day to go, and fortunately myself and Dirk Viljoen got in, and we ended up getting a lead of 260 with a full day to go."
[More | Scorecard]

John Rennie on the Logan Cup

John Rennie had a major effect on the recent Logan Cup match between Matabeleland and Mashonaland at Bulawayo Athletic Club, both by his presence and his absence. His five wickets played a major part in bowling Mashonaland out for 170; his 63 was instrumental in Matabeleland's first-innings lead of 86. But then an arm injury put him out of the match; Mashonaland recovered and completed an eventual 276-run victory. Here he talks to John Ward about the match and his recent cricket career.

"When I was bowling my 22nd over without a break - maybe that was a little bit too much - as I bowled a ball I felt a click directly under my armpit. I subsequently found out that it's probably a ligament tear or a ligament strain under there. I tried to bowl a couple more balls but it was just too sore. It seems to have eased quite considerably over the last couple of days, so it will probably take six to eight days to heal. I've got to see a physio and see if we can get the healing process up and running quite quickly."
[More | Scorecard]

Mark Vermeulen on his maiden century against Midlands

Mark Vermeulen recorded his maiden first-class century, 197, in the Logan Cup match against Midlands played at Kwekwe from 17 to 19 March this year. He talks to John Ward about that match.

"There were only a few runs on the board when the first wicket fell and I went in. The pitch wasn't really doing very much and there was only David Mutendera who was bowling with any pace; the other opening bowler wasn't all that quick. They brought in Raymond Price pretty early, and he basically bowled through the whole innings. I just started off slowly; after the weekend before against Manicaland when I thought I was a bit negative, just because it was a longer game, now what I try to do is to back myself to hit the ball, and when I see it in the right place to hit I'm going to play my shots. I've decided that if the ball is in my area I'm going to play my shots, and that's what I did. My first hundred took quite a long time, but my next 97 came off 50-odd balls."
[More | Scorecard]