the first side to book a ticket in the semi-finals of the Stanbic Twenty20 cricket tournament at Harare Sports Club yesterday afternoon.
Following some rain interruptions with three overs to go, the match had to be referred to the mathematical system after they decided to field first and Rocks posted 114/8 in their allotted 20 overs.

When play was stopped Tuskers still had 3.5 overs to bat and they were 106/1 and the DLM with a run rate of 6.55 per over, 0.85 better than the Rocks.
This was also the same case in the second game of the day where Mountaineers won by 22 runs on the DLM when play was stopped due to bad light after Mountaineers, batting first, posted 139/7 in their allotted 20 overs.
With 4.5 overs to go the Eagles were 82/6 and this was not good enough to see the side register their second win of the tournament.

But the day belonged to the Tuskers whose win also meant that the Bulawayo side are the only team not to suffer a defeat in the tournament that started on Friday at the same venue having beaten Eagles, Mountaineers and Rocks.
And it was the heroics of Man-of-the-Match Smith who led the side to such a feat after he scored an unbeaten 63 off 56 balls with five fours after claiming two wickets earlier.

His 105 run partnership with Paul Horton who was also unbeaten on 39 (off 40 balls with three fours) was the pinnacle of the Tuskers win while Gayle who partnered Smith in only in the opening over was out for a duck after facing one ball.
It was Rocks seamer Brian Vitori who was responsible for making sure that Gayle took the long walk back to the pavilion in the first over after he was caught by caught

behind by Alistair Maregwede leaving Tuskers at 1/1 at the end of the over.

But that was the only time the Rocks found themselves with smiles on their faces.
Having been put into bat first after they lost the toss, the Rocks were not as solid as their name suggests and it was the low order batsman Hillary Matanga whose unbeaten 25 after their allotted overs was the highest individual score for his side.

First to go was Chamunorwa “Tsano” Chibhaha (13) who was caught behind by Adam Wheater off a Keegan Meth delivery in the fifth over.
Four balls down the same over, Meth was back to haunt the Rocks again to send Kenyan Alex Obanda back without putting any runs on the board.

The Rocks top order continued to fall and opener Roy Kaia did not last long as well after he was by Steven Trenchard off a Glen Querl delivery in the sixth over leaving the Rocks at 3/26 as they lost three wickets for just two runs.

But the Tuskers were not yet finished as Smith came in to send Rocks’ second high run scorer Shane Burger (21) and Richmond Mutumbami (9) as Smith and Meth finished with figures of 2-21 and 2-13 respectively.

In the second game of the day, the Mountaineers win over the Eagles saw them retain the second spot on the log standings where they have nine points, four behind Tuskers.

Put in to bat, Mountaineers posted 139 after exhausting their given overs and it was captain Hamilton Masakadza (36 off 27) who led from the front with the bat while bowler Nathan Waller helped his side defend their title as he closed with figures of 3-20.
Mountaineers’ Dirk Nannes took 2-9 while Shingi Masakadaza, Prosper Utseya, Natsai Mushangwe and Chris Harris each had one apiece but all this was in a losing cause. Regis Chakabva top scored for Eagles with 23 off 24 balls.

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