Theron, Alexander fashion SA win

South Africa A's late strikes helped them to a 17-run win against Zimbabwe XI in Harare, and put them in the final of the tri-series, where they will face Australia A on July 8.

Asked to bat, South Africa built their total around a fluent 92 by Rilee Rossouw. The rest of the top order got starts, but none of them carried on to produce big runs. The best partnership of the innings involved Rossouw and Vaughn van Jaarsveld - 77 for the fifth-wicket - as South Africa pushed on to a competitive 244 for 8 in their 50 overs. Left-armer Brian Vitori and medium-pacer Elton Chigumbura were the pick of the bowlers for Zimbabwe, claiming five wickets between them at less than four runs an over.

Zimbabwe's chase was on course for more than half their innings, as solid cameos from the top order pushed them to 145 for 2 in the 28th over and then 178 for 3 in the 33rd. But late bursts from quicks Rusty Theron and Craig Alexander caused a mini-collapse that reduced Zimbabwe to 210 for 9. That left the last pair of Chris Mpofu and Vitori, with 35 to get from 73 balls; they got halfway there, before Alexander had Vitori edging to the keeper to end the innings on 227 in 43 overs.