Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

The last 3 days have seen the North of Zimbabwe play off against the South in three Regional Men's Twenty20 games.



For fans of points of the compass, the North prevailed in all three matches....but who were the stand out performers and what might selectors have learnt? Lamentably not a lot.



In Zimbabwe's Domestic Twenty20 Competition two players impressed with bat and ball. That was Milton Shumba and Brad Evans. Two players have impressed with the bay and the ball in this competition....and that is Milton Shumba and Brad Evans.

Whilst one set of Zimbabweans are facing South Africa A, another group are in Nepal for 3 T20s and 3 One Day games.



The 'Zimbabwe XI' facing South Africa A are pretty much just the Zimbabwe first team with 480 white ball appearances across the team. This tram is clearly their second string with 83 apperances between them - 40 of which comes from just one player.



It was a relative veteran of 3 ODIs and 11 T20Is who shone in the first match as Tadiwanashe Murumani top scored with 56 in Zimbabwe A's second innings score of 182-4. They chased down the total asked of them with 7 balls to spare.



The second game is tomorrow with the concluding fixture on Wednesday.

The T20 leg of the Zimbabwe A series was rather ruined by weather. After Zimbabwe won the first game, rain washed out the second game after 4 overs before Nepal levelled the series very comfortably in the last match. So it is very hard to see who is in the ascendancy as we moved into the 50 Over games……. until the game actually started.


It seems that Nepal were still in T20 mode as they were all out for 136 and still had 20 overs left in the bank. Brad Evans really must be pushing for full international honours soon. The ex-Cardiff MCCU player was top of the wicket takers in the Zimbabwe Regional Men's Twenty20 tournament and has been pulling up roots in the domestic competition all year. Today he got wickets in all of his spells and finished with figures of 8.3-0-27-4. Zimbabwe won at a canter, needing a mere 26 overs to turn the tide.



The next game is tomorrow with he final game on Monday.

After Nepal's poor showing yesterday, you would have had long odds on an even more convincing win for then today....but that is what we ended up with.



Zimbabwe A were all out for a miniscule 86 in 31.5 overs. The Nepalese bowlers shared the wickets amongst them but Karan KC managed to bag 3 wickets alongside 3 maidens to catch the eye the most.



Nepal continued to rub salt into the wound by knocking off the chase within 11 overs.

After two very one-sided and brief One Day games, it was pleasing to see this one go the distance.



Zimbabwe went out positively and put on 213 runs in their 50. The main reason why this was so limited was due to the regular intervention of debutant Kishore Mahato who got five for 43.



Nepal looked more confident from the get go and built substantial partnerships throughout. And needed a mere 30 0vers to do the job.



The rise of Nepal is on.

Tadiwanashe Murumani ended as the highest run scorer- but with 105 runs it suggests the series was not a runfest. Nepal's Basir Ahamad was one of two players to get 3 wickets but leaked just 40 runs in the process.

Gary Ballance will be back playing for Zimbabwe at the start of the new year.