By Anashe Murombedzi
THE battle of Zimbabwe between Dynamos and Highlanders failed to live up to expectations, with the country’s biggest clubs playing out to a dull nil-all draw at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday.
Dynamos versus Highlanders is usually a blockbuster match, an encounter that usually produces heroes and shapes careers, a clash that local football fans look forward to.
However, that was not the case when the two giants of local football squared off at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday, and save for a few brilliant moments by Highlanders midfielder Devine Mhindirira, the match was just another fixture on the PSL calendar.
Back in the day, crowds of Dynamos and Highlanders fans would paint the terraces in black, blue and white, and make the atmosphere tense with war cries, the blowing of the trumpets and the rolling of drums.
But none of these pictures was witnessed this Sunday at the National Sports Stadium in the build-up to the lacklustre performance.
Unlike the Soweto derby between Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs played on Saturday in the ABSA Premiership across Limpopo, the stadium was filled with thousands of fans, who could not miss the biggest match of the season in the country.
To give gloss to the high-profile match across Limpopo, there were indeed celebrations as Yusuf Maart scored a solitary goal in the 74th minute to hand Chiefs bragging rights in the Soweto Derby.
Back home, the dull match was even confirmed by the scoreboard, which still wrote 0-0 at the end of 90 minutes, a result that saw the two teams dropping on the log standings.
Two matches before the end of the season, Dynamos are now third on the log with 57 points, while Highlanders is fifth with 50 points.
Champions, FC Platinum are on 71 points and will be crowned on the final day of fixtures.
Chicken Inn is second with 59 points, while Ngezi Platinum complete the top four with 51 points.
On the other end of the table, Tenax, who lost 5-nil to Ngezi Platinum on Saturday, have gone down alongside fellow correctional services side, Whawha, who only managed a nil-all draw against Harare City on Saturday.
Harare City, Bulawayo City and ZPC Kariba are in the relegation zone, and they only have two games to redeem themselves and remain in the topflight.