Rangers book final berth
HALF-CENTURIES from Sean Williams and Mathew Welch were enough to inspire NPL debutants Sogo Rangers into their first NPLT 20 Blast final in a debut season with a five-wicket victory over Takashinga Patriots 1 at Harare Sport Club yesterday.
Williams put up a man-of-the-match performance with a 68-run score off 32 balls.
Sogo Rangers’ win was their second against the defending champions within a week having defeated them on Sunday by three runs in a nail-biting encounter at Takashinga Sports Club.
Having finished first and second on the NPL T20 season log standings, the two sides met yesterday in a Qualifier 1 match where the winner booked a place in the final set for tomorrow.
With a final spot at stake, Rangers won the toss and set the NPL T20 Blast defending champions to bat first.
Takashinga Patriots 1 had a fine start to their innings putting up a total of 39 runs on the board before losing their first over at the start of the sixth over after Tinashe Kamhunukamwe was caught out by Williams off a Ryan Burl delivery.
Joylord Gumbie was sent off three runs shy of a half-century, after facing 30 deliveries.
Wellington Masakadza gave it all, scoring 29 runs off 19 balls before his brother Hamilton Masakadza rolled back the hands-off time with a knock of 27 runs off 13 balls.
Emmanuel Bawa, Blessing Muzarabani, and Timycen Maruma ensured that Takashinga Patriots posted a competi-tive score of 182 runs in the allotted 20 overs scoring 22, 25, and 15 respectively.
Team captain Roy Kaia was the only player from the Highfield-based side, who failed to record double figures after he was dismissed for two runs.
Chasing a target of 183 runs, Sogo had an awkward start to their innings, as the defending champions struck with the first ball.
Mathew Campbell was caught out by Bawa off a Muzarabani delivery.
Rangers went on to lose their second wicket of the day in the second over.
But it took the experience of Williams to stabilize the debutants innings by scoring 68 runs off 32 balls.
Williams innings was supported by Mathew Welch, who scored 56 off 44.