South Africa's lead swells despite Williams' 137

Since 2020, Zimbabwe have had ten individual hundreds in Tests. Sean Williams alone has scored five of those. One of those centuries came against South Africa in Bulawayo on Sunday, and formed the centerpiece of Zimbabwe's innings.

South Africa declared their first innings on their overnight score of 418 for 9, and in reply, Zimbabwe were struggling at 23 for 2. Williams walked in at No. 4, and Zimbabwe's woes were further compounded when Brian Bennett walked back due to a delayed concussion. Bennett was struck on the helmet by a Kwena Maphaka short-of-a-length delivery and while he faced three more balls, he decided he couldn't continue any further and walked off.

From thereon, it was almost all about Williams. He found a little help from captain Craig Ervine, with the duo adding 91 runs. They got together with Zimbabwe 390 runs behind, and with Maphaka and debutant Codi Yusuf in good rhythm. Yusuf had Takudzwanashe Kaitano caught at backward short leg off his fifth ball in Tests, and Nick Welch edging behind to the wicketkeeper in his third over.

Both of South Africa's new-ball bowlers were extracting plenty of bounce and carry. South Africa may have opted to bowl on the second morning in anticipation of exactly that after they saw Zimbabwe's quicks getting a lot of help from the surface in the first session on Saturday.

Despite the early wickets and assistance for the seamers, Williams counterattacked. He got two early boundaries off Maphaka: one an outside edge flying past gully, and another a short-arm pull to deep-backward square leg. While Maphaka was taken for runs, Yusuf was much tighter: his in-between lengths drew the batters forward, and his line around the off stump checked the flow of runs.

Zimbabwe however, ended the morning session without any further damage. Wiaan Mulder and Corbin Bosch replaced the new-ball bowlers, and continued to test the batters with accurate lines and lengths. Ervine was especially cautious, managing just nine runs off his first 44 balls. But he dispatched his second boundary when he cut hard at a short and wide delivery from Bosch in the 19th over, and that seemed to have injected some momentum into Zimbabwe's innings.

Both Ervine and Williams found success by punching or slashing the ball behind - and in front of - square on the off side. Zimbabwe were chipping away with that partnership before Keshav Maharaj made things happen. He beat Williams after tossing one up at him in the 24th over, and could have had him stumped on 40 had Kyle Verreynne not fumbled on the first attempt.

After lunch, with the ball turning into him, Williams decided to use the sweep against Maharaj. One of those attempts saw the ball pop up off his forearm, and just behind the slip fielder. Finally, it was Maharaj who broke through. Ervine skipped down the pitch to Maharaj, who floated one full and wide of off. Ervine, on 36, missed, and this time Verreynne flicked the bails off in time.

Thereafter, it was all about the remaining batters playing a supporting role for Williams. Wessly Madhevere confidently swung Maharaj for six over long-on early in his innings, with the South Africa captain being attacked by Williams as well. Williams faced 52 balls from the left-arm spinner and scored 43 runs - a strike rate of 82.69 - including five boundaries.

Twice Williams advanced down the pitch to convert potential length deliveries into full tosses, and heaved them away to the deep-midwicket boundary. Mulder trapped Madhevere for 15 in the 43rd over, but Williams remained firm. Four overs later, Williams got to his sixth Test hundred - the joint second-highest by a Zimbabwe batter - but next ball, saw Prince Masvaure, the concussion substitute for Bennett, edge Mulder behind.

Mulder got his third when he had Tafadzwa Tsiga balloon a leading edge to point in the 49th over. Yusuf bagged his third wicket soon after when Wellington Masakadza got a faint tickle behind to Verreynne. At that stage, Zimbabwe were 217 for 7, still two runs short of avoiding the follow-on. But Williams comfortably got them past that mark in the company of Vincent Masekesa, who blocked and dabbed much to South Africa's frustration.

Williams' stay ended at 137 when Maharaj had him stumped for Verreynne's fifth dismissal of the innings. Masekesa, Blessing Muzarabani and Tanaka Chivanga added only two more runs from that point, as Zimbabwe were bowled out for 251, leaving South Africa 167 runs ahead in the first innings.

Despite falling behind by a huge margin, Zimbabwe hit back early. Chivanga had Matthew Breetzke edging to gully for 1 in the second over, but Tony de Zorzi and Mulder kept South Africa on track. They survived the evening despite some help for the Zimbabwe seamers, and took the score to 49 and the lead to 216 without any further damage.