brmtaylor.com Logan Cup XI (2008-09)

Posted by brmtaylor.com admin on May 13, 2009

Not surprisingly, this years brmtaylor.com Logan Cup XI is dominated by Easterns and Northerns players with a couple of Centrals players up the order. With no wins from six matches, none of the Westerns players made the cut although there were some impressive individual performances from Sean Williams (102), Charles Coventry (106) and Mark Mabuza (106).

The opening batsmen in the Logan Cup struggled, with Bernard Mlambo the only opener of the tournament to score a century (158). There were some good innings by others - Bothwell Chapungu's 85, Chamu Chibhabha's 80 and Freedom Takarusenga's 65 not out. Overall, it was Chibhabha that won the second opening position due to his healthy average of 40.66 which the other openers could not match.

There was only one candidate for the number three position. Malcolm Waller has had an outstanding tournament, ending as the leading run scorer with 503 runs at 50.30 from his 6 matches. Brendan Taylor ended the tournament with an average of 95.00, although only played the one innings. Trevor Garwe and Rememberence Nyathi averaged 62.33 (due to six not outs) and 53.00 (due to playing only one match and scoring a century) respectively.

Waller notched up six half-centuries in total and was unlucky to miss out on a maiden first class century.

The middle consists of national team players Hamilton Masakadza, Stuart Matsikenyeri and Elton Chigumbura.

Masakadza played an impressive tournament, although was a little hot-and-cold with just the one half-century - his run tally boosted by two big hundreds. Likewise, Matsikenyeri also made his big scores count with two centuries and two half centuries.

Chigumbura again was showing his versatility, just 7 runs shy of Malcolm Waller with 496 for the tournament. As always, he is capable of making the team by his results in either discipline - after Shingirai Masakadza, he was second on the wicket takers list for fast bowlers with 23 dismissals at 19.52.

Forster Mutizwa takes the number seven spot and takes the wicket keeping gloves. He scored the first century of the tournament and finished with an average of 49.66. He scored 447 runs overall at the high strike rate of 70.39.

Ray Price, Graeme Cremer and Prosper Utseya find themselves back together as Zimbabwe's spin trio after taking 86 wickets between them. Utseya, courtesy of some red hot form including several 10 wicket hauls (for the match), took 30 wickets for the tournament - 1 more than Price and 3 more than Cremer. But it was Price who won the day as far as economy rate is concerened, conceding just 1.83 an over.

Admire Manyumwa earned the spot as the second seamer after some outstanding form early on in the tournament to cap off a break-out season. He took three 5-fers and a best of 5/15. And with a batting average in the low-20's for the tournament, he ensures batting all the way down the order.

Shingirai Masakadza, despite being the leading wicket taker among the pace bowlers, couldn't squeeze into the team but does make the 12 man squad.

It's a largely different team to the brmtaylor.com Logan Cup XI of 2008, with only the Masakadza brothers, Matsikenyeri, Chigumbura and Price finding a place two years running.

	brmtaylor.com Logan Cup XI for 2008-09

	1. Bernard Mlambo...........[Easterns]
	2. Chamu Chibhabha..........[Centrals]
	3. Malcolm Waller...........[Centrals]
	4. Hamilton Masakadza (c)...[Easterns]
	5. Stuart Matsikenyeri......[Easterns]
	6. Elton Chigumbura (vc)....[Northerns]
	7. Forster Mutizwa (wk).....[Easterns]
	8. Ray Price................[Northerns]
	9. Graeme Cremer............[Northerns]
	10. Prosper Utseya..........[Easterns]
	11. Admire Manyumwa.........[Northerns]

	12. Shingirai Masakadza.....[Easterns]