The Sunday Mail
Brighton Zhawi
NINETEEN year-old Douglas Murove, who is already being touted as the next Brian Vitori, bowled Southern Rocks to the Zimbabwe Cricket Associate Provinces League title with a spell that rocked Mashonaland Central into submission at Bindura Country Club yesterday.
The left-arm seamer produced superb figures of 5-28 to power the Masvingo province team to a 31-run victory in the inaugural edition of the Pro40 competition.
Murove capped off a fantastic tournament, in which he bagged 19 wickets in three innings, by scooping the player of the tournament accolade.
Yesterday he was instrumental as well as Rocks defended their sub-par total of 173 for nine, which came after some hard work in their innings.
“I am overwhelmed by this win,” Murove said.
“It feels great to contribute to the success of my team and being called the next Vitori gives me more power to work hard,” said the Kyle College pupil.
Southern Rocks head coach, former Zimbabwe International, Alistair Maregwede, was full of praise for his side.
“It feels good to win the tournament, which was our primary objective.
“We played as a team, we have had performances from individuals, Douglas was the man-of-the-match and the tournament but he didn’t take any wickets last week.“But he stepped up in the final, some guys scored runs in the group stages.His counterpart Paul Banda blamed elementary mistakes for their loss.
“We dropped catches when we were fielding, we played wrong and unnecessary shots when batting.“I am disappointed by the team, we had full control of the first innings, and we were not ruthless when we had them 83-7,” he said.Banda had every reason to be livid as he saw his bowlers clam down their opponents to 83-7 after a great spell by Zimbabwe U19 player Wesley Madhevere (3/26) and Artwell Nyambanje (2/41), but fail to capitalize.
Unfortunately, a tenth-wicket partnership between Cornelius Munyanyiwa 43 (58) and Fungai Hlupo (22) gave Rocks something to defend.
And a dream start was given by their prime man Murove who removed the two openers to leave Mashonaland Central at 11-2. They never really recovered despite Madhevere’s valiant 50 as Rocks proved too good for their opponents.Zimbabwe Cricket Manager Development and Domestic Cricket Caesar Bond Nayoto said it is good to see new players emerging.
“We would want this tournament to grow and also have some senior coaches coming in to help these associates,” he said.
