Classy Chakabva goes big as BLU posts imposing total

The Zimbabwean international was in imperious form, slashing 22 boundaries and causing havoc for the L-G bowling attack, which seemingly had no answers to the onslaught, with the impressive total coming from just 139 deliveries.

“It felt really good. It was a good deck and just a good day, it felt good from the moment I sort of walked in,” Chakabva said following his outrageous effort.

“Being a two-day game as well I had plenty of time, so I just thought, you know, if I batted on merit and just try and bat time, I would get a good score, and fortunately it worked out in the end for me.”

The mammoth ton, Chakabva’s maiden McMahon Shield century, is also the fourth-highest individual effort in the competition’s history.

And while the BLU skipper was undoubtedly the star of the day, there were plenty of important contributions as BLU reached its imposing total.

Kade Pearse (28), Werner Brand (33), Declan Pearse (39) and Luke Thompson (28) all played the supporting role to a tee, allowing Chakabva to flourish while keeping the scoreboard ticking over when finding themselves on strike.

“We were just trying to keep it nice and simple, play on merit and just look to build some partnerships,” the BLU skipper said.

“Once you got going and got yourself in, it was a good deck to bat on, and so we were just trying to find those opportunities to score and it was good to get the sort of partnerships we did.”

L-G’s Jye Keath bowled as well as could be expected against the mightily impressive batting display, taking 3-72, including the eventual wicket of Chakabva, although it wasn’t enough to stop BLU from being the first side to post a score of more than 300, with the home side declaring at 6-330.

The visitors faced 16 overs before stumps for no loss, as Joshua O’Shea (10) and Billy Hawken (12) ended the day unbeaten, albeit with it all ahead of them as L-G remains 305 in arrears.

Chakabva applauded the efforts of the two L-G openers to withstand the tricky period at the close of play, although he is confident his side can defend its massive total as the game enters its second day next Saturday.

“The reason why we declared was to try and pick up some wickets and put them under pressure going into next week,” he said.

“Credit to them, I thought they batted really well, the two guys that opened. They played really well to stay in for the 15-16 overs we bowled, and we bowled with some really good plans and the bowlers really stuck to the plans as well.

“Hopefully, you know, next week is a new day and we'll certainly be trying to bowl them out, and we'll see how the game goes. But yeah, we're confident and hopefully we'll get the job done next week.”