South Africa thump Zimbabwe to claim series by Jinu Sabastian

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Ground:	Centurion Park, Centurion
Scorecard:	South Africa v Zimbabwe
Player:	T Taibu, JP Duminy, JH Kallis
Event:	Zimbabwe in South Africa 2009/10

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DateLine: 10th November 2009

 

South Africa after getting a scare in the previous encounter did not break a sweat as they thrashed Zimbabwe by a massive 212 runs to claim the short series. It was the last match before the all important England series begin and the match was a perfect practice for the Proteas team.

 

Duminy, Kallis and Smith worked themselves into form with handy knocks as they powered South Africa to an imposing total of 331 in their allotted 50 overs. Zimbabwe in reply could muster only a meagre 119 in 34.3 overs with Taibu top-scoring with a valiant 52.

 

Utseya surprisingly elected to field after winning the toss, hoping that his bowlers would be able to make some inroads into the South African batting line-up. Zimbabwe's pace duo of Chris Mpofu and Kyle Jarvis could not find answers to the early onslaught of Kallis and Smith. The pair decimated the Zimbabwean bowling attack with some aggressive shots as the bowling wilted. Kallis signaled his intentions by cutting Jarvis for six in the second over, followed by a brace of boundaries off Mpofu. Smith, dropped by Brendan Taylor, found his range as he raced to a half-century in 39 balls.

 

Zimbabwe finally broke through in the 18th over when Smith was stumped by Taibu of Utseya. AB de Villiers was cleaned up by Price before Kallis and Duminy joined forces. Duminy looked quite comfortable in the middle as he found the boundaries regularly. He along with Kallis laid a firm base for the final assault as they added 78 in 13.2 overs. In the closing overs Duminy found an able company in the form of Boucher and the two simply tore apart a toothless Zimbabwean bowling attack to shreds. The pair looted 58 runs in 5.3 overs to push the score above 300 with Duminy registering a maiden one-day century in the closing stages of the innings.

 

The Zimbabwean batsmen in reply could not muster the kind of reply that they gave in the first one-dayer. The openers Masakadza and Taylor were back in the hut without disturbing the scorers. Taibu promoted up the order continued his good run as he was the only batsman who was comfortable in the middle. The rest of the batsmen simply capitulated without offering much resistance to the South African seam bowlers.

 

Taibu and Matsikenyeri raised vague visions of repeat of the previous match heroics but twin strikes from Morkel in the 12th over put paid to such thoughts. The South African bowlers were spot with Langeveldt, Morkel and van der Merwe taking three wickets each as Zimbabwe crashed to 212 run defeat.