South Africa clean sweep five-match series

South Africa Under-19 219 for 1 (de Kock 94, Jennings 84*) beat Zimbabwe Under-19 218 (Moor 116*) by nine wickets
Scorecard

An unbeaten ton from captain Peter Moor led a creditable recovery for Zimbabwe Under-19s after a disastrous start, but it was not enough to stretch South Africa who won the fifth match easily to complete a 5-0 drubbing of the hosts in the Youth ODI series.

South Africa inserted Zimbabwe and tormented them with the new ball, as Chad Fortune and Rabian Engelbrecht reduced them to 10 for 3 in the fifth over. The visitors would have harboured hopes of rolling Zimbabwe over for another paltry score, but Moor was determined to change the pattern observed through the series. He counter-attacked in style, cracking five fours and two sixes to bring up 50 in 48 balls. Tinotenda Mutombodzi did the sensible thing by giving his captain the strike in an 85-run stand for the fifth-wicket towards which Mutombodzi contributed 28. Nathan Waller who came next stepped up a gear as Moor raised 70 in his company in 13 overs. Riyaad Henry who suffered the most from the onslaught managed to dismiss Waller in the 47th over. That hampered Zimbabwe's quest to push on towards the end, with Moor slowing in the latter stages of his innings. He finished with 116 off 120 balls, as Zimbabwe cobbled up a score of 218.

Zimbabwe's hopes of grinding out a comsolation win were quashed in clinical style by South Africa's openers Quinton de Kock and Keaton Jennings. The hosts' attack was unable to make an impression as the two batsmen went about their job without fuss, mindful of the manageable asking rate. The verdict was all but sealed by the time they were seperated at 159 in the 35th over, de Kock missing a ton by six runs. Jennings was slower in his scoring and finished unbeaten on 84 off 131 balls when the win was sealed.

There was some consolation for Moor, whose innings earned him the Man-of-the-Match award, and he was keen on avenging his side's defeat in the two Twenty20 games to be played on Monday. "We will take note of the positives from this series and surely use them in the next game. We came out more motivated and determined and the Twenty20 matches will be the last port of call for us to implement what we learnt," the Zimbabwe captain said.