Zimbabwe's (uncooked) chickens come home to roost

Zimbabwe Select 36 for 3 trail South Africa A 542 for 7 (Dippenaar 189, Amla 142, Ontong 70 ) by 506 runs
Scorecard

Zimbabwe Select were handed a total drubbing by South Africa A on the second day of their four-day match at Queens Club in Bulawayo. On the field, their bowlers were slaughtered and their top-order batsmen humbled. Off the field it was chickens that were the problem.

The bare bones of the game itself are depressing enough for the locals. Resuming on 287 for 2, Boeta Dippenaar and Hasim Amla extended their second-wicket stand to 256 before Amla was caught at point for 142. Dippenaar then opened up, along with Ashwell Prince and then Justin Ontong, and they filled their boots. Zimbabwe's increasingly pop-gun attack could do little about it as they continued their first-day habit of dropping catches.

Dippenaar, who was caught at slip within sight of a double-hundred, only called off the slaughter to give his own attack enough time to make some inroads in the remaining hour or so, and that they did. Hamilton Masakadza and Brendan Taylor weathered the new ball, Taylor doing so by retreating into his shell, but Nel had Masakadza caught behind and then Paul Harris stuck twice in successive overs to remove Taylor, caught at silly point, and the struggling Vusi Sibanda lbw.

By the close Zimbabwe had limped to 36 for 3 off 21 painful overs, still 506 in arrears and with the follow-on so far off in the distance as not to be worth calculating. On the evidence of the A-team matches in the last month, it will take some heroics from Tatenda Taibu to even get them halfway to South Africa's total.

The day had started embarrassingly for the authorities with the news that the South African players had found that fast food in 2007 Zimbabwe is missing one vital element - the food. Today, the caterers at least had that and it duly arrived for lunch. Sadly, such were the power and fuel shortages that they had neglected to cook the chicken, so the club had to help out. One can only wonder what tomorrow will bring.