An unbroken sixth-wicket partnership of 76 between Matthew Welch and Ryan Burl proved to be the vital factor for Rangers, as they broke Takashinga Patriots’ monopoly of club trophies with a fine 35-run victory in the NPL T20 Blast final at Harare Sports Club on Saturday.
Put in to bat by Takashinga Patriots 1, they lost Mathew Campbell for a single, but Jayden Schadendorf and Nick Welch put together a fine stand of 63 in six overs before Schadendorf was out for 43 off 29 balls.
Welch went for 27 and Sean Williams for 14, and then the loss of Johnathan Campbell for one made the score 104 for five wickets after 12 overs.
At this point Takashinga were on top, but then came the decisive partnership between Matthew Welch and Burl that turned the match around.
Welch scored 54 not out off 39 balls, Burl 29 off 21, and the final total was 180 for five wickets.
Normally Takashinga with their powerful batting would back themselves to hunt down that target, but this was not to be their night as their usually reliable top order failed them.
The opening pair of Joylord Gumbie and Emmanuel Bawa started powerfully to reach 29 in the third over, but then Gumbie was bowled by Alistair Frost for 17.
Then came two serious blows as Johnathan Campbell took the wickets of Roy Kaia and Wellington Masakadza with successive deliveries, making the score 33 for three wickets.
Bawa soon followed for 18, but Takashinga had the renowned Sikandar Raza playing for them.
He was going well for 37 off 26 balls when he was caught by Johnathan Campbell off Burl, just after Timycen Maruma went for 12, and in the 12th over the score was 94 for six and Rangers held the advantage.
They were now into the tail, but all was not lost as long as Hamilton Masakadza was there.
His stand with Blessing Muzarabani flourished, and their partnership put on 43 of the 87 runs that were still needed when Raza was out.
But then came the final blow, as with the score on 137 and needing to increase run rate, Masakadza was caught by Burl off Williams for 29 off 19 balls, and Rangers now knew the match was theirs.
With only 16 balls left the tail-enders were unable to complete the job, hard though they swung their bats, and with the first ball of the final over Tapiwa Mufudza was the last man out, caught by Campbell off Frost with the score at 145.
The giants of Zimbabwe cricket had fallen and Rangers celebrated a fine team effort, with four of their bowlers taking two wickets each and four batters having scored more than 25 runs.
Rangers – 180-5 in 20 overs (Matthew Welch 54*, Jayden Schadendorf 43, Ryan Burl 29*; Wellington Masakadza 2/20, Munashe Chipara 1/22, Sikandar Raza 1/28)
Takashinga Patriots 1 – 145 all out in 19.1 overs (Sikandar Raza 37, Hamilton Masakadza 29, Emmanuel Bawa 18; Johnathan Campbel 2/2, Alistair Frost 2/23, Ryan Burl 2/25)
Rangers won by 35 runs
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