Gavin Rennie made a spectacular return to form with 199 runs in the match against Midlands. He talks to ZCO about that match.

I had three weeks of low scores in club cricket, and I think a bit of laziness had crept into my footwork. I worked really hard with Geoff Marsh pre-season, getting my feet working well, and that resulted in some really good scores against the national team before they went to Sri Lanka; I got a 94 not out and a 56 not out, and a 50 retired, and then 62 in my first club match against Takashinga.

But then came my low scores, but last week I put in some hard work in the nets, again with Geoff Marsh, and got my footwork back to the level it should be, and it paid off over the weekend.

I was put into the Matabeleland team for the Logan Cup, although I don't really have any connections there. We were asked to go down on Tuesday to get together with the Matabeleland squad, to get some team spirit going and practise together as a squad. We practised hard on Tuesday, Wednesday afternoon, and again on Thursday morning.

We won the toss and elected to bat, which was a good decision; Noel Peck, the curator, prepared a good cricket pitch - there was a little bit there during the first couple of hours for the seamers, and we saw that out. The weather conditions had been pretty freezing the day before, but they were now clear blue sky, with a bit of a breeze blowing and the temperature not too high - a perfect day for cricket. The pitch was in great condition and so was the rest of the Queens outfield.

Mark Vermeulen and I got off to a great start: he scored 29 off five overs before he got out. We were going at six or seven an over for the first ten to fifteen overs, so we were going great guns. But we did lose a couple of wickets, which required a bit of consolidation, although I did manage to keep the scoring rate up.

The Midlands attack has great potential: they have big names there in Travis Friend, Campbell Macmillan and Sean Ervine, and Raymond Price in the spin division, together with Dirk Viljoen. They have one of the stronger attacks in the Logan Cup this year, but certainly the first spells from the opening bowlers, Macmillan and Friend, were lacking the fiery pace that they bowled in their second spells. It did allow us to settle down and get into a batting rhythm. Raymond Price bowled well, his usual tight stuff; he got turn on the first day and more and more turn as the game progressed, picking up eight wickets in the second innings, with the other two run-outs.

He was backed up by some good spin from Dirk Viljoen, and the seamers settled into that channel outside off stump, as opposed to trying to attack us. What I can say is that the seamers bowled two lengths: it was either short or full, so that made scoring pretty easy for us.

We eventually made 462, and batted really well for it. Andre Hoffman batted really well and dominated the attack. He scored 93, and he has come a long way since being at the Academy. There were useful contributions from people like Barney Rogers and Nkala, which helped us compile a good first-innings score.

When Midlands batted, we bowled pretty well, although our attack isn't as fiery-quick as the Midlands attack. We have Pom Mbangwa, who is medium-pace, and 'Syke' Nkala, and we realized that the best way to get them out was to bowl a channel outside off stump and get them to come at us, rather than to try and attack the batsmen and end up bowling too many bad balls. That worked really well for us: we contained them, we were able to build pressure on them, and they had to go at us and gave us the chances.

They ended up 114 runs short of our total. Sean Ervine batted really well, getting 105, and there were useful contributions from other guys. As bowlers we had Pommie Mbangwa and 'Syke' Nkala; we've got Jordane Nicolle who has just come out of the Academy, and he's struggling a bit at the moment with control. He is a fiery quick bowler, but I know he's working on his control; he has a lot of potential. Our spin department was Keith Dabengwa, left-arm spinner, and Gavin Ewing, who bowled very well in the first innings.

In the first innings, Mark Vermeulen and I put on a 131-run partnership and dominated the attack; we put away anything loose they bowled us. That good start was the building blocks for getting 400 runs ahead. I got out in a pretty unfortunately way, a waste of a wicket, a run-out. Then 'Chappie' Coventry, who was batting with me at the time, put his hand up to score the runs and batted very well; he really dominated the spinners and ended up scoring 80, a very good effort.

Our target from the outset was to get 400 run ahead, and then leave them as many overs as possible to get them, and obviously give ourselves a chance to bowl them out on a turning wicket. This we did; we left them 92 overs to get 400 runs. They have a strong batting line-up and it turned out a very good game.

'Pricey' bowled really well; he bowled accurately and the pitch turned and bounced enormously. It was almost inconsistent spin in that some balls spun a long way and others didn't, so it made playing the spin more difficult for the right-handers. There were a couple of rough areas on the pitch, and when he hit them it turned a long way; when he hit the smooth area it spun, but not as much. So for batsmen inexperienced in playing spin, it was really tough. He got the ball in the right areas and bowled fantastically well.

Vusi Sibanda opened the batting for them in the second innings and scored 82. He batted really well; we did dish him up a lot of half-volleys and such, which he put away well. I think he's got a good temperament and he showed that in the second innings.

Douglas Marillier batted well; he scored 163. Before we went on to the field, we said they would give us ten chances, and they did more than that; they gave us 21 chances, I believe. We managed to hold on to eight of them, but we put down 13 chances, and eight of those were Douglas Marillier. I believe we dropped him on 3, and again on 20; there were a couple of missed stumpings, a couple of missed run-outs - but a hundred is a hundred, and he got a big one. He batted really well in between those chances, but I felt that we let the game slip from our hands. I believe if we had got him early we would have won the game pretty easily.

Sean Ervine again batted pretty well, getting 35; he's looking in excellent form at the moment and I believe he should have got another hundred. We just focused in trying to bowl maidens and create a bit of pressure, and as soon as we did that they gave us the chances.

So the game ended up with them needing, off the last ten overs, I think about 70 runs, and still had four wickets in hand, with Douglas Marillier going really well on 150 and Alester Maregwede, who can really hold a bat well. They decided to shut up shop then, which I believe was one wicket too early to bat for the draw. They still had batsmen like Innocent Chinyoka and Raymond Price, who are known to bat well, and batting at eleven they had Campbell Macmillan.

I believe if I had captained that team I would have told Douglas and Alester to go for the win; should they had lost one of those wickets I would have sent in Campbell Macmillan, who can swing the bat well and hit the much-needed boundaries. Then they still had the back-up of Raymond Price and Innocent Chinyoka to shut up shop and play for the draw if it got to that situation.

But I know that I was part of the fielding side and we were certainly worried about losing the game - and yet Midlands had the same thought, worried about losing the game themselves. I really thought they should have gone for the win as the positive thing to do, and good for cricket.

But it ended up as a really good game; we took eight wickets but just couldn't get the last two by the time that time was called by the umpires. Matabeleland would definitely have won if they had taken their chances. Geoff Marsh counted 21 chances and we held on to eight of them. I believe if we want to compete and win games we have to hold on to our chances.

Midlands missed a few chances as well, but not as many as 21. In the first innings I gave a chance that went between first and second slip, and I think that was the only chance I gave. I think I was on about 60 or 70 at the time. But in the second innings I believe it was a higher quality innings than the first innings from the batting point of view, and I gave no chances in that innings.