ACS Oveseas First-Class Annual 2013

Zimbabwe in 2012/13 After their modestly encouraging return to Test cricket in 2011 and 2011/12, Zimbabwe had to wait a further 14 months until March 2013 before reappearing in the Test arena for their only series in the period under review, a two-match rubber in the West Indies. They began the series promisingly, but ended by suffering big defeats in both matches (see the West Indies section). In the first Test at Bridgetown, they were holding their own when they had their hosts 151-6 in reply to their own first innings of 211, but at that point a rapid half-century from West Indies’ captain D.J.G.Sammy seized the initiative for his side, and Zimbabwe never recovered. The spin of S.Shillingford ensured that Zimbabwe ended on the wrong end of a nine-wicket defeat at Bridgetown, and then an innings defeat at Roseau. Zimbabwe’s bowlers could not approach Shillingford’s performances, but overall it was their batsmen who proved the greater disappointment, for they could manage only one score above 35 – and that an innings of only 50 – in the entire two-match series. The truth was that by the end of the series Zimbabwe were outclassed by the team standing in seventh place in the ICC rankings. Zimbabwe themselves did not even qualify for a place in the rankings, so few Tests have they played in recent years. As was the case a year previously, the conclusion must be that, despite the occasional encouraging sign, Zimbabwe still have a very long way to go before being able to compete at Test level on a regular basis. How much the continuing financial issues that affect cricket in the country will hinder their progress along that journey remained, at the end of the 2012/13 season, an unanswerable question. The only first-class cricket played in Zimbabwe in 2012/13 consisted of the domestic Logan Cup competition. As in 2011/12 this was contested in a simple home-and-away league between the five franchise sides; and as in 2011/12, Bulawayo-based Matabeleland Tuskers retained the Cup, and suffered their only defeat when the title was already assured. Second place went to the Mountaineers (from Mutare), who won as many games as the Tuskers but – in a points system that perhaps gave a disproportionately high value to draws – missed out on the Cup by drawing one match fewer than their rivals for the title. The 2011/12 runners-up, Mashonaland Eagles (based in Harare) had a disastrous season, losing six of their eight matches and in November suffering successive defeats by 323 and 312 runs. Yet theirs was not the most remarkable defeat of the season: that came at Masvingo in November when – having bowled out Southern Rocks for only 58 in their second innings, to leave a target of a mere 64 – Mountaineers were dismissed in their second innings in 15.3 overs for just 26. This result was one of three wins for Southern Rocks, the first of which, in the season’s opening match, was their first-ever win under that name in the Logan Cup. The previous first-class victory for the Masvingo-based side – then known as Southerns – had been in May 2008, since when they had played 33 Logan Cup matches (one as Southerns, 32 as Southern Rocks), drawing 15 and losing the remaining 18. But despite the improvement in their form in 2012/13, they could still finish no better than fourth in the five-team competition. The leading runscorers and wicket-takers of the Zimbabwe season came from the Logan Cup’s mid-ranking teams. The runscorers’ list was headed by R.Mutumbani of Southern Rocks with 686 runs at 49.00, followed by M.L.Pettini – one of a number of English county cricketers plying their trade in Zimbabwe during the northern winter – with 600 runs at 54.54. Leading the wicket-takers was E.C.Rainsford of Mid West Rhinos with 38 wickets at 15.42, including the season’s best innings figures of 8-42 against Mountaineers. R.G.Querl of the Tuskers, who had enjoyed an outstandingly successful debut season in 2011/12, shared second place on 37 with S.W.Masakadza of Mountaineers. (KSW) 637