Harare,(Samajweekly) The Cape Town Samp Army put on a dominant display at the Harare Sports Club, further consolidating their position at the top of the points table in the Zim Afro T20 cricket tournament, bowling brilliantly and then batting with panache to beat Joburg Buffaloes by 7 wickets, with 14 balls to spare.
Batting first in the second game of the day, the Joburg Buffaloes had a bad start, losing the wicket of Will Smeed off the first ball for a duck. A 20-run stand followed after that between Tom Banton and Milton Shumba (14) before the latter was sent packing by Mujeeb Ur Rahman on Sunday evening.
Banton, who scored a fifty in the previous match, was the next to walk back, dismissed for 6. At this stage, the Buffaloes were in trouble, and it was Yusuf Pathan, who added 15 more to the cause. The Buffaloes weren’t able to get much of a move on in the innings up until then and needed the duo of Mushfiqur Rahim (16*) and Mohammad Hafeez (23) to turn up the ante.
They put together a 42-run stand after that and Noor Ahmad added seven more before the end of the innings. The Buffaloes, who had a tough time to getting any momentum, finished with the score at 96/5 in 10 overs.
In response, the Samp Army got off to a flyer with Tadiwanashe Marumani looking really good at his end and had solid support from Rahmanullah Gurbaz. The openers made batting look very easy under the lights, with the young Zimbabwean doing most of the heavy lifting.
The batters were in such good control that even the very experienced Mohammad Hafeez, who has been dangerous so far in the tournament, could not apply the brakes on the Samp Army. By the end of the fourth over, the Samp Army had reached the 50-run mark without losing any wickets and were well on their way towards a big win.
In the sixth over of the chase, Marumani got to his half-century with a six over extra cover, as the finish line came closer and closer. However, Marumani could not hang in there till the end and was dismissed for 54 in the 7th over, after the openers put on an 86-run stand.
After that, the Samp Army lost the wickets of Gurbaz for 35 and Bhanuka Rajapaksa for 1, before Matthew Breetzke and Karim Janat sealed victory.
Brief scores:
Joburg Buffaloes 96/5 in 10 overs (Mohammad Hafeez 23, Mushfiqur Rahim 16*; Karim Janat 2-25, Mujeeb Ur Rahman 1-17) lost to Cape Town Samp Army 97/3 in 7.4 overs (Tadiwanashe Marumani 54, Rahmanullah Gurbaz 35; Noor Ahmad 2-26) by 7 wickets.
