Mountaineers bag fifth Logan Cup title

FOR Mountaineers, five appears to be the magic number, as the Mutare-based franchise continues their quest to become the most celebrated Logan Cup champions in the country.

Only last week, they won their fifth Logan Cup title after a five-year wait.

Their first championship came during the 2013-2014 season.

They went on to win the trophy for three consecutive seasons between 2016 and 2019.

“Winning a trophy is what we are always aiming for and when you achieve it, it’s a great feeling. It means a lot to all of us because we view the Logan Cup as the biggest in our domestic season,” said coach Stuart Matsikenyeri. The former Zimbabwe international described the level of competition during the just-ended red-ball season as very high.

“It’s not easy to win this particular competition because you have to be consistently good,” he said.

“I thought the competition was good as you will find that for much of the season there wasn’t much separating the teams, and we only won it on the last match of the season.

“This shows just how competitive the season was.”

He credited his team’s success on his bowlers’ prowess. “I think the difference was our bowling performances throughout the season.

“In a season where the bat dominated a lot, we still managed to bowl out teams a number of times and that made the difference in the competition.

The Chevrons fast bowler, Tendai Chatara, led the bowling attack for the Mountaineers.

“Tendai Chatara is obviously quality, but it was the bowlers as a unit that gave us the title.

“The bowling department complemented each other so well.

“Having Victor Nyauchi come back from injury was a huge boost for us, the left-arm seam of Salman Mirza made us more potent and the control of Wellington was invaluable.

“Donald Tiripano was always prepared to solve problems for us.

“And, with such an attack, we were always in the driving seat during our matches,” added Matsikenyeri.