A sad end for Streak & Co.

Zimbabwe suffered an unhappy but rather predictable end to their tour with a seven-wicket loss to South Africa at Southampton. They would probably have hoped for a South African victory over England on Tuesday, as then their opponents might have been inclined to take it easy on their way to Saturday's Lord's final. Instead, the South Africans were stung by their defeat and were determined to show Zimbabwe no quarter.

Heath Streak appeared to have enough confidence in the Rose Bowl pitch to bat first - but he soon regretted it. There was some early movement and the ball tended to keep low, but once again even a small amount was enough to shatter the nerve and technique of the top order. Three went down for 18, mainly due to poor strokes - or, in the case of Tatenda Taibu, a poor non-stroke, bowled shouldering arms - and all to Makhaya Ntini. Once again, a no-contest was virtually assured almost from the start.

Dion Ebrahim was still there, though. If he cannot keep the runs flowing at a decent one-day rate, at least he often does a job when the top order is so fragile, by blocking up an end during a collapse until a partner arrives who can stay in and score runs at the same time. Nobody has any reason to query the size of Ebrahim's heart, but flashing and sparring, as he did last weekend, is not his game.

The slide continued, although the inexperienced Richie Sims played well for 24. But nobody else was able to stay with Streak after Ebrahim finally departed at 74 for 6. Streak showed his experience by keeping his innings going, reaching 50 off the final ball, while Raymond Price showed some of his real batting talent by hanging on in a useful ninth-wicket partnership. But the target of 174 gave Zimbabwe almost no chance, and after the early collapse there had never been a realistic chance of anything different.

As against England, though, Zimbabwe broke through early on when they bowled. This time it was Douglas Hondo, striking one of his purple patches. In his first two overs he removed Herschelle Gibbs and Martin van Jaarsveld, both caught at the wicket by Tatenda Taibu, the second a superb diving effort. But once again, that was virtually as far as it went. Graeme Smith and Jacques Rudolph saw that Zimbabwe's hopes were never raised again, although Rudolph was missed at 40, when a stumping off the luckless Sims went astray. Again most of Zimbabwe's bowling was better than it had been earlier in the tour, but it is still not penetrative enough by international standards.

As for the ground itself, the Rose Bowl is magnificent, but the occasion was spoilt by massive traffic congestion. There were two major reasons for this: first, the police reportedly refused to direct traffic, and secondly, the stewards inside the ground stopped every car and then tried to decide where each one should go. All this caused long delays, and the local authorities need to address this issue seriously for future occasions.