Brandon Mavuta was the hero of the day for the Zimbabwe Emerging team as they edged their South African counterparts by just three runs in a thrilling finish to the third one-dayer at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo on Saturday.
The leg-spinner turned in a match-winning spell of six wickets for 39 runs. Winning the toss, the hosts decided to bat, but were soon deep in trouble, losing their first three wickets for 26. Ryan Kamwemba did not score, Nick Welch was out for seven and Takudzwanashe Kaitano for one.
Fortunately, Emmanuel Bawa responded superbly, playing his strokes with confidence while the middle order gave him cautious support, and the score reached 99 for only four wickets down. At this point another collapse occurred, to the bowling of Andile Mokgakane, who took four wickets in eight balls, at the end of which eight wickets were down for 100.
This included the wicket of Bawa, who had done a fine job for his side with 60 runs off 80 balls.
The ninth wicket fell at 115, but Tashinga Musekiwa was still there, and the last man Tapiwa Mufudza again showed a stubborn bat.
Musekiwa attacked the bowling boldly while Mufudza held his end up, and they added an invaluable 62 runs for the last wicket before Mufudza was caught at the wicket for 12.
Musekiwa was left unbeaten with 51, scored off 46 balls, and the total was 177.
Mokgakane took the bowling honours with five wickets for only 22 runs.
The South Africa Emerging team's strong batting line-up was not expected to have much difficulty with this comparatively small target, but the Zimbabweans had some surprises in store for them. The first two wickets went down at 44, but when the third went down at 86 the scene began to change, as the middle order failed and five men were out for 101, three of them to Alex Falao -- including the captain, Modiri Litheko, for the highest score of 53.
At this point, the match was certainly evenly balanced. Mokgakane and Ntandoyenkosi Zuma had to set about repairing the innings, and they put on 38 runs together for the sixth wicket as the balance swung to the South Africans.
Mavuta changed all that with the score on 139, as he dismissed Mokgakane and Tristan Luus with successive deliveries -- 139 for seven and another 39 needed to win from the last three wickets. Codi Yusuf scored five before Mavuta trapped him lbw with a googly to make it 148 for eight.
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Zuma and Jade de Klerk took the score to 174 before Zuma was the ninth man out, another wicket for Mavuta in his 10th and final over, and the last pair had to score four runs to win.
Three balls and no runs later, and the last man Nhlakanipho Mpungose was given out lbw to the irresistible Mavuta and the Zimbabweans celebrated a last-ditch victory after a hard tour.
Brief Score:
Zimbabwe Emerging: 177 all out in 46.3 overs (Emmanuel Bawa 60, Tashinga Musekiwa 51*, Victor Chirwa 14; Andile Mokgakane 5/22, Dian Forrester 2/24, Codi Yusuf 2/35)
South Africa Emerging: 174 all out in 40.5 overs (Modiri Litheko 53, Ntandoyenkosi Zuma 37, Lesego Senokwane 18; Brandon Mavuta 6/39, Alex Falao 3/51)
Result: Zimbabwe Emerging won by three runs
