Series whimpers to an end, but Steyn's back with a bang

Zimbabwe were dreadful, but it doesn’t hurt to now know Dale Steyn has another World Cup left in him, and that Reeza Hendricks, Heinrich Klaasen and Khaya Zondo are on the same page.

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE in London

TWO out of three ain’t bad, but it sucked that the odd game in South Africa’s one-day series against Zimbabwe was Saturday’s finalé in Paarl.

Having raged hard for the first two games, which were played on unexpectedly challenging pitches in Kimberley and Bloemfontein that blunted the South Africans’ clear superiority, the rubber went gentle into that good night on a hazy, hot spring day in the winelands.

So let’s thank the gods for last week’s surfaces. Three games worth of the home side sleepwalking to victory like they did on Saturday, by four wickets, would long since have had that part of the nation that gave a damn in the first place changing the channel to Strictly Come Bellyflopping.

But it doesn’t hurt to now know Dale Steyn has another World Cup left in him. Even accounting for the state of the series and the forgettable opposition, the way the stalwart speedster tore into his work to take 3/29 told anyone who cared to know that he has plenty of ambition smouldering in the tank.

And that Reeza Hendricks, who showed patience and discipline for his 66, and Heinrich Klaasen, courtesy of another creative innings, this one worth 59 — his maiden ODI half-century in his ninth innings — are on the same page.

“Thank you to [Titans coach] Mark Boucher for letting me bat four or five; I’m getting used to that role,” Klaasen said in a television interview.

Khaya Zondo, who warmed the bench in the first two games, looked utterly comfortable tightening the nuts and bolts with his cool, calm unbeaten 25: another note for Linda Zondi and his selection committee to make.

Zimbabwe were bowled out for 228 — almost twice as much as they made in Kimberley and nearly three times their total in Bloem — and they actually took their innings into its last over.

South Africa reeled in the target with a ball more than four overs to spare to claim the 3-0 win they needed to stay at No. 4 in the rankings.

Anything less would have cost them; a cruel but fair indication of the miserably poor cricket being played by a Zimbabwe team who have won only five of their 29 matches this year.

Helped by the kinder conditions they were closer to international standard on Saturday. Sean Williams, always as nuggety as the best scrumhalves, scored a flinty 69 — not just Zimbabwe’s only half-century of the series but its highest score.

Brendan Taylor’s 40 helped Williams add 73, the only time that a pair of Zimbabweans have been together for long enough to share 50.

But that was never going to change the truths that, as difficult as it was to look past the limitations of the series as a measure of South Africa’s World Cup readiness, and as unconvincing as their batting was in Kimberley and Bloemfontein, there was just one team on the field throughout.