ACS Overseas FIrst-Class Annual 2012

Zimbabwe in 2011/12 For Zimbabwean cricket the outstanding event of 2011 and 2011/12 was not so much any achievement on the field of Test match play as the side’s mere presence on it: for on 4 August 2011 at the Harare Sports Club ground, Zimbabwe resumed a Test career that had been in abeyance since 22 September 2005. On that occasion Zimbabwe had succumbed to a ten-wicket defeat at the hands of India and it says much about Zimbabwe’s standards at that time that this actually constituted an improvement after five consecutive innings defeats. On 18 January 2006 Zimbabwe Cricket, forestalling likely action by ICC, announced a temporary withdrawal from Test cricket, and in the 2005/06 season even the domestic first-class competition, the Logan Cup, did not take place. Although absent from Tests, Zimbabwe remained throughout a full member of ICC and continued to play limited-overs internationals in which the team’s results, although still poor, showed occasional signs of improvement. In 2007/08, three first-class friendlies were arranged in South Africa and Zimbabwe had the satisfaction of winning all three. After this, ICC agreed that a Zimbabwe XI could take part in the 2009-10 Intercontinental Cup for non-Test nations, and here again the results, although not sensational, seemed reasonably encouraging. This impression was, on the whole, confirmed by the results of Zimbabwe’s Test matches in 2011 and 2011/12. Although a convincing win in the first match, against bottom-ranked Bangladesh, was followed by defeat at the hands of Pakistan, Zimbabwe could take some comfort from having been competitive until the later stages of the match (for both these games see ‘Matches in 2011’). In 2011/12 Zimbabwe played one-off Tests home and away against New Zealand: the home game was lost by only 34 runs after Zimbabwe appeared until very late on the last day to have an excellent chance of winning; but in the return match (see the New Zealand section) the side was dismissed for a humiliating 51 and went on to lose by an innings and 301, a salutary reminder of how far Zimbabwe still has to go. Domestically, the Castle Logan Cup reverted to a more orthodox home-and-away format instead of the previous arrangement in which the teams met each other thrice. In addition, the final was discontinued so the Cup was decided purely on league position. Matabeleland Tuskers convincingly retained the title, winning five of their eight matches and suffering defeat only in their last game when the title was already secure. At the other end of the table, Southern Rocks suffered a dismal season, losing seven of their eight matches and drawing the other. A large ingredient in Matabeleland’s success was the right-arm medium pace of Harrow-educated R.G.Querl, who launched his first-class career in spectacular fashion with 18 wickets, average 7.77, in his first two matches. He finished his debut season as easily the leading wicket-taker with 45 victims at only 12.88 each. In second place was S.W.Masakadza of Mountaineers, with 33 wickets at 13.75. The season’s leading batsman were G.S.Ballance (1,093 runs at 84.07) and M.H.Wessels (631 at 90.14), both of Mid West Rhinos. Castle Logan Cup 2011/12: Final table P W WLF L LWF DWF DLF Pts 7 6 0 1 1 0 1 Matabeleland Tuskers 8 5 0 1 0 1 1 36 2 Mashonaland Eagles 8 3 1 2 0 1 1 28 3 Mid West Rhinos 8 3 0 0 1 2 2 24 4 Mountaineers 8 1 1 3 0 2 1 15 5 Southern Rocks 8 0 0 6 1 0 1 1 623