da roleta： The Academy resumed on 28 for one, and it soon became clear thatthe Academy were taking perhaps a realistic view of theirposition: that they had insufficient time to push for victory byconventional means and even to aim for a declaration game
John Ward05-Mar-2000The Logan Cup match between the CFX Academy and Mashonalandpetered out in a drawThe Academy resumed on 28 for one, and it soon became clear thatthe Academy were taking perhaps a realistic view of theirposition: that they had insufficient time to push for victory byconventional means and even to aim for a declaration game wouldbring about a situation where they were hardly likely to bowl outMashonaland in less than half a day. The overnight batsmen RyanKing and John Vaughan-Davies settled in on a pitch that wasplaying slowly with a bit of turn, and after an hour they werestill there and Mashonaland were growing disgruntled andpressurising the umpires.Then two wickets fell quickly. King was given out lbw toPeacock, the ball hitting him quite high, and soon afterwardsVaughan-Davies was deceived into shouldering arms to the samebowler, who was spinning the ball quite sharply, only to find itcoming straight on and hitting his off stump – the third batsmanto be out this way in the match. He had mixed some good driveswith some vigorous fresh-air swings at balls outside the offstump. Both had made 24, and the Academy were now 68 for three.Greg Lamb scored only 10 before hitting a sharp return catch toViljoen, but Travis Friend was batting soundly, playing some gooddrives and strokes to leg. Due to the slow outfield he hit fivethrees against two fours in his 35 before becoming the eighth lbwvictim of the match, to Matambanadzo. The Academy went in tolunch on 139 for five, 112 ahead (Colin Delport 22, Jason Young2).The afternoon session was a dull one, but vital for the Academy,and Mashonaland grew increasingly frustrated, as was shown intheir body language and the amount of ‘chirping’ they engaged inat times. The only wicket to fall was that of Delport (34),checking a drive against Craig Evans and sending an easy catch toTrevor Penney at mid-on. The score was now 160 for six. PaulStrang, with his knee injury, prepared to come in at nine, butYoung and Clement Mahachi showed tremendous determination andconcentration to hold on until tea, when the score was 201 forsix – unbeaten on 26 and 17 respectively – and the match all butsafe. They mixed sound defence with firm strokes when safe to doso, but the heavy outfield made fast scoring difficult under thebest circumstances. The only chance given was when Young duckeda bouncer from Matambanadzo and wicket-keeper Don Campbell misseda shy at the stumps with the batsman still out of his crease.The Academy batted on after tea, useful practice for theirbatsmen, and the only further wicket to fall was that of Young,lbw to a yorker from Viljoen for 34. Strang decided to risk hisknee by batting with a runner, to be not out with 4 at the end,while the left-handed Mahachi was undefeated with 24. The finalscore was 221 for seven, a lead of 194, at 4pm, the time at whichthe teams could call off the match as a draw if there was mutualagreement. It was a creditable achievement for the Academyplayers to bat out the match, although with more experience theyshould be able to take greater toll of bowling that was ofteninaccurate. They will also learn to build on a good foundation;in their second innings six batsmen passed 20 but none scoredmore than 35. Unfortunately some of the Mashonaland players wereless than gracious about their successful effort to force a draw.