Sunday News
28 Feb 2010
By Mehluli Sibanda and Stanford Chiwanga
RAINS failed to put a damper on the Twenty20 Cricket Festival held at Petra High School last weekend as the tournament proved a success despite wet weather.
Prince Edward(PE) beat Churchill by one wicket in a thrilling final to be crowned champions last Sunday. Eight top cricket-playing schools in the country took part in the carnival.
The festival that started late on Friday afternoon was supposed to end on Saturday but had to be extended to Sunday to accommodate the semifinals and the final.
Rains rendered the B-field at Petra unusable for the first two days and the matches were subsequently moved to Bulawayo Athletic Club. From there on, it was smooth sailing as the matches went ahead despite the drizzling that came on and off.
As the matches meant for Friday morning could not take place, the festival organisers resolved that the festival continue up to Sunday.
Defending champions Falcon College started off well with a five-wicket victory over Christian Brothers College. From there, however, Falcon despite their big name stars found the going tough and were clobbered by St Georges. They later lost to Churchill by 10 runs ending their account at the quarterfinal stage.
CBC were the most disappointing of the Matabeleland schools as they lost all their three matches at the festival, while Milton accounted for hosts Petra by 26 runs in their first match at BAC. Milton booked their place in the semifinals with a three-wicket win over St Johns College.
Petra were unfortunate not to make it into the last four as they left it till late to find their winning formula.
The John Burgess captained Petra edged St Johns by 14 runs and they followed that up with a tied match against PE in what was one of the most exciting matches of the festival. The encounter headed for the super over, a requirement in Twenty20 cricket to decide a tied match and Petra won by six runs. Left arm spinner Saleem Manuel took two wickets in the first over to seal the win. The super over win over PE was late since Petra had lost to Milton who proceeded to the semifinals.
Petra have shown lots of promise this year and they are now a force to reckon with on the schools cricket arena. Burgess, vice-captain Manuel and Atish Chouhan who is the favourite for the captaincy next year starred for Petra at both bat and ball.
Despite failing to make it beyond the group stages, Petra can take courage from the fact that they at least beat the champions PE in the preliminary stages.
In the semifinals, Milton scored 123 for the loss of eight wickets in 20 overs, the highest score coming from Farai Murehwa who had 28 runs.
Sloppy fielding cost Milton as Churchill reached their victory target in 16.4 overs, losing just four wickets. Kudakwashe Huni top scored for Churchill with 55 runs to lead his school to a six-wicket win.
PE all but sealed their place in the final when they posted 150 runs for the loss of just two wickets against St Georges in the other semifinal. St Georges however did not easily surrender but eventually fell 25 runs short.
A final between the two Harare schools was always going to be a close encounter whose winner was difficult to predict.
PE won the toss and sent in Churchill to bat first. Huni top scored with 44 runs, Dean Mazhawidza, who represented Zimbabwe at the International Cricket Council Under-19 Cricket World Cup, chipped in with 37 runs to take Churchill to 142 for five in 20 overs. Needing 7.15 runs an over, PE looked on course for a comfortable victory but Churchill did not make it easy for them.
PE needed 12 runs in the last over with three wickets in hand. Spinner Wellington Masakadza was tasked with bowling that crucial over and he picked up two wickets with the first two balls without conceding a run. Kudakwashe Musarurwa held his nerve to hit a four, a six and with two runs required off the last ball. He cracked a four to seal the match.
For their effort, the Lesley Murombedzi-captained PE took back home a shield while Churchill also got a shield for being runners up.
James Bruce of St Georges took the Player of the Tournament award; Baxton Gopito of Churchill won the Best Batsman accolade while Kieren Keyle of St Johns was adjudged the Most Outstanding bowler.
Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture David Coltart, who was the guest of honour during the three day festival, presented the prizes to the winners.
Coltart was full of praises for the spirit displayed by the schoolboys saying it was encouraging that government schools PE and Churchill battled it out in the final.
“I am delighted that two government schools made it into the final. It is good for me as Minister of Education because they were competing with private schools that have all the resources. I was particularly impressed with the spirit in which these young cricketers played the game and I hope they carry on with this spirit when they go on to represent the country,†said Coltart.
One of the tournament organisers David Connolly said he was happy that they managed to have all the matches played despite the rains.
“I am glad we managed to have all the matches played which was our main objective. I was impressed with the level of cricket displayed especially in the final. To score 142 runs and lose it during he last ball was just unbelievable. I am sure all the schools would be back again next year,†said Connolly.
The festival was well supported by the corporate world with Duraline Paints being the main sponsors of the event. They contributed T-shirts and caps for all the eight participating teams and provided kit for the match officials.
Other companies that sponsored the cricket fiesta were Kingdom Bank, Kingdom Hotel in Victoria Falls, Whitestone Chapel, CB Richard Ellis, Croco Motors, Auto World, Senator Transport, Sasol Nitro and Bathroom Boutique.
The Manuel family, owners of Papa’s restaurant and takeaway donated warm up T-shirts and caps for the Petra team.
Excitement was added to the event with an auction for all the eight teams on the eve of the festival.
Petra fetched the highest bid of $675, second were St Johns who went for $600, Falcon College attracted $300, while St Georges, PE, Milton, Churchill and CBC fetched $275, $275, $200, $150 and $125 respectively.
A total of $2600 was raised through the auction and Henry Welsh, who bought PE, pocketed $520. The rest of the money raised went into the school coffers to cater for sports tours.
It was certainly an exciting three days of Twenty20 cricket and organisers pledged to make it even more exciting next year by inviting schools from South Africa while holding it at a convenient time for more local schools to attend.