By Tafadzwa Chiminya
A huge defeat for the defending champions, the Gladiators, as they lost to Rangers in the Harare Metropolitan Cricket Association league match at Old Hararians this Sunday.
Rangers won the toss and elected to field first, taking a huge gamble on a wicket which was used yesterday, trying to restrict the Gladiators from posting a huge score.
Gladiators started off well with Lennox Chando opening the bat and reaching his second half-century this season after 5 innings.
At one point, they were 92 runs for the loss of 1 wicket after 16 overs, putting pressure on Rangers, who were looking disparate to get wickets.
All hell broke loose when Chando got out after scoring 52 runs, which shifted the momentum to favor the opposition.
Wessly Madhevere tried to contain the heat by frustrating the opponents in an attacking manner, but it did not last long as he was short of 8 runs to reach half a century.
Wickets started falling off in groups, allowing Rangers to gain control of the game as they wanted when they elected to bat first.
The whole team was bowled out for 179 runs after 30.2 overs.
In a post-match interview, captain Brian Bennett said, ‘The way we bowled in the middle phase after drinks was very good, the way myself and Micheal Front got the ball to do some stuff there on the wicket and take 4 wickets each was very good.’
Michael Frost, who got the best baller of the match, took 4Â wickets in 4.2 overs and conceded only 5 runs.
‘The rest of the youngsters’ play was very good, the fielding was also good, took a lot of catches, and ground fielding was also good,’ he added.
Speaking to Gladiators captain Milton Shumba, he said, “We had a good start with one of our openers scoring a half-century and lost a couple of wickets straight after the spin bowlers came into play, we didn’t handle their spinners really well.’
After lunch, the second innings started with Tadiwanashe Marumani and Jorad Bosson opening the batting as they dribbled around the Gladiators’ bowling attack.
Basson continued with his outstanding form as he scored his 4th fifty this season in 6 innings, and still leads the leaderboard in most runs.
Owen Muzondo, the only Gladiators player to take wickets, ‘2’ got Basson out for 56 runs.
Tadiwanashe Marumani, who got the best batter of the game, batted through to see his team cross the line as he scored, his first half century after 3 innings finished with 77 runs not out.
Man of the match was Brian Bennett, who scored 18 runs and took 4 wickets.
Rangers won by a whopping 8 wickets against Gladiators.
Bennett praised he’s to openers for setting the foundation for the team to take the game away.
Going forward to the next game, Shumba said, “They took lessons from today and avoid losing wickets in clusters, we are still number 2 in the league, meaning we are doing well, so we are not really focusing more on the negatives but take the positives and move forward.’
