SA surge to Cinderella win

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Harare

SA’s win over Zimbabwe in the one-off test in Harare on Tuesday was one of Cinderella’s ugly sisters before midnight: made to look prettier than it was.

It was also comprehensive. Victory was wrapped up by nine wickets with more than a day to spare.

The home side, who resumed 113 runs shy of making SA bat again, were dismissed for 181 in the ninth over after tea. SA knocked of the nominal target of 41 with 13.2 of the scheduled overs not required.

Dane Piedt revelled in the sharp turn he found and maintained fine control to take 4/62 and finish with a match haul of 8/152 - the best figures by a SA spinner on debut and the 11th best by any SA bowler in his first test.

Morne Morkel bowled with the same impressive aggression and commitment he showed in the first innings, when his efforts went unrewarded. This time, he claimed 3/15 from 15 overs.

Dale Steyn huffed and puffed like the best of pantomime villains and blew three Zimbabweans’ houses down for 38.

So, it was left to the bowlers to tie a ribbon around this half-brick of a match that SA’s batsmen struggled to make watchable in their first innings.

Hashim Amla explained why that happened: “We could have tried to take the game to them and we could have been six or seven wickets down. We haven’t been able to play the type of cricket we usually play, given the conditions. Winning in four days is as big a victory as it gets on this type of pitch.”

The dusty, dismal, depressing Harare Sports Club pitch was designed to stunt bright batting, but the Zimbabweans found a way to around that and played with something approaching freedom.

And there can be no forgetting that Zimbabwe’s limited attack should have been no match for SA’s powerful batting line-up.

But a win is a win, and this one was rushed into the scorebook in 10 overs after lunch in which SA snapped up five wickets for 26 runs.

Steyn struck first with an inswinger that trapped the lumbering Mark Vermeulen leg-before. Then Piedt hung onto Vusi Sibanda’s hard hit return catch and had Brendan Taylor sharply taken by Dean Elgar at short leg. Morkel came to the party by cleanbowling a leaving Regis Chakabva and having Sean Williams wonderfully caught by JP Duminy flinging himself full length at point.

All of which meant Zimbabwe had crashed from their lunch score of 80/2 to 124/7 with almost 45 minutes of the second session left. Richmond Mutumbami and John Nyumbu stopped the slide and levelled the scores when Mutumbami drove Piedt through the covers for three with seven balls left before tea.

Oddly, SA resumed after the interval with Duminy and Elgar instead of more threatening bowlers. That Steyn replaced Duminy and not Elgar in the third day of the session was also strange.

Mutumbami and Nyumbu took advantage of SA removing their foot from their throats to share 54 - Zimbabwe’s biggest stand of the innings - before Steyn had Mutumbami caught behind for 43, his highest test score.

Piedt returned in the eighth over after tea, and Nyumbu slapped the off-spinner’s first delivery straight back at him to complete his quiver of wickets.

Seven balls later, Steyn splayed Tinashe Panyangara’s stumps to end the innings.

With SA needing just two more runs, Elgar suffered what he would probably call his second “brain fart” of the match when he steered a woefully wide delivery from Tendai Chatara onto his stumps.

Six balls later, Faf du Plessis completed the job with a four down the ground off Sean Williams.

Well done, bowlers. Batsmen? You are far better than this.