Nyathi, Tiripano hit centuries to put Northerns firmly in driver’s seat
Southerns – 144 and 12-0 in 5 overs (Brian Mudzinganyama 7*, Tanu Makoni 0*)
Northerns – 476-8 declared in 199.5 overs (Remembrance Nyathi 115, Donald Tiripano 100*, Timycen Maruma 98; Sikandar Raza 3/129, Tapiwa Mufudza 2/66, Tony Munyonga 1/31)
Day 3 – Stumps: Southerns trail by 320 runs
The third day of this five-day match between Northerns and Southerns at Harare Sports Club was dominated by two centuries by the overnight pair of Remembrance Nyathi and Donald Tiripano.
Northerns began the day with a score of 288 for six wickets, having exactly doubled the Southerns total of 144 all out – Nyathi was on 46 and Tiripano was yet to score.
The morning session saw an amazing display of stone-walling by Nyathi, who faced 84 balls in the two-hour session, the equivalent of 14 overs, and scored only 10 runs, including one boundary, in that whole period.
At lunch the score had moved to 342 for six wickets, with Tiripano now on 42 and Nyathi 56.
After the interval, Tiripano reached his fifty off 152 balls.
After camping on 64 for quite a time, with Tiripano almost catching up with him, Nyathi was tempted into trying a scoring stroke against the slow spin of Sikandar Raza and edged the ball past the slips for four.
This seemed to inspire him to start looking for runs at last, and he began scoring faster than his partner.
He almost reached a century before tea, going in for the interval on 99, with Tiripano on 74 and the score 420 for six.
Immediately after the break, a nudged single brought Nyathi his century, scored off 274 balls.
The monumental innings and partnership finally came to an end when Nyathi was caught at the wicket off Tony Munyonga for 115, at 451 for seven wickets.
His marathon innings lasted seven hours and 15 minutes during which he faced 304 balls and scored 14 fours – it was the eighth first-class century of his career and the partnership had put on 165 for the seventh wicket.
Tiripano at this stage had 89 and as soon as he took a single to complete his fourth first-class century, which took him 275 balls and contained 11 fours, Northerns declared at 476 for eight wickets.
Southerns had bowled just one ball short of 200 overs and they went in to bat again 332 runs in arrears.
Mufudza returned impressive figures with the ball, bowling altogether 47 overs to take two wickets for only 66 runs, while Raza took three for 129 off 44.5 overs.
Southerns went in for five overs before the close – Brian Mudzinganyama, with seven, and Tanu Makoni, still to score, kept their wickets intact.
