by Augustine Hwata

MASHONALAND Eagles held their nerve and sneaked home to a one-run victory over Mid West Rhinos to be crowned champions of the second edition of the Stanbic Bank Twenty20 Series at the Harare Sports Club on Sunday.

Eagles had looked down and out but player/coach Andrew Hall bowled a fine over at the death to restrict Rhinos to 166/6, and steer his team to win the title in a nail-biting finish to the final match which attracted a near capacity crowd.

Eagles won the toss and set a victory target of 168 for the loss of seven wickets in their 20 overs, thanks largely to opener Nick Compton’s classy half century and a late assault by Hall who scored a blistering 39 runs from 17 deliveries.
But Rhinos, spurred on by skipper Vusi Sibanda’s 46 runs in a 30-ball knock and Lou Vincent’s defiant innings that contributed 39 runs off 37 balls looked on course to a likely victory with seven runs needed off the last over.

The game however took a sharp turn as Hall underlined his reputation as an accomplished death bowler when he stepped in to apply brakes on Malcom Waller (20) and Paul Franks (2) and stopped them from running away with the game.

Hall bowled tightly in the penultimate over as the pair could only manage five runs and effectively surrender the game which had gone to the wire.
With Rhinos in need of four runs from the last ball, Waller managed only two to send wild celebrations among the Eagles players who were playing in their second final after finishing runners up in the inaugural edition won by Mountaineers early this year.

Compton who was named the best batsman of the tournament was the highest scorer for Eagles with a classy 74 runs from the 55 runs balls he faced before disappointingly giving away his wicket in a run out following a mix-up with Forster Mutizwa.
Compton nonetheless finished with the most runs in the tournament after plundering 233 in the six matches he played for Eagles while teammate Ryan Butterworth was named player of the tournament for his match winning performances during the series.