South Africa complete clean sweep of one-day series

A timid batting display and another early spray-gun bowling performance condemned Zimbabwe to another defeat at the hands of South Africa, giving the tourists a clean sweep of the three-match one-day series. This time it was by six wickets, although it might have been much worse were it not for two controversial umpiring decisions.

Same weather, same type of pitch, same Zimbabwean team, but the Zimbabweans went into this match hoping it would not be the same cricket. They have played well below their best throughout this tour, especially in the bowling department, and only in the Bulawayo Test were able as a team to cause the South Africans any trouble.

Two-nil down and in this 'dead match' of the one-day series, they had a last chance to give the tourists something to remember them by.

Remarkably, Zimbabwe made no changes to their losing team when they could well have given some youngsters experience or gambled on the pace of Henry Olonga, bowling well in the nets, or brought in a specialist spinner on a wearing pitch.

South Africa did take that opportunity, bringing in Boeta Dippenaar, Justin Ontong and Justin Kemp in place of Gary Kirsten, Andre Nel and Makhaya Ntini.

Zimbabwe won the toss for the first time and decided to bat, which couldv have proven to be an advantage on a slow pitch that was wearing the day before. Whether they would be able to take advantage of it was another matter.

Alistair Campbell went in with his third opening partner in as many matches, Hamilton Masakadza, who is still struggling in one-day cricket. He made 5 before being trapped lbw by Justin Kemp, who opened the bowling with Shaun Pollock.

Campbell and Stuart Carlisle then became bogged down against good bowling and superb fielding, and after 13 overs the score was only 25, with Pollock conceding just nine runs off six overs.

Then the arrival of the second-string bowlers enabled the batsmen to score a little more freely. The fifty came up in the 20th over, and Campbell was finally beginning to open up when Claude Henderson bowled him through the gate for 40 off 77 balls in the 24th over; Zimbabwe 92 for three.

Andy Flower, under pressure to score quickly, scored only 4 before he tried to hit Henderson over the top and was well caught overhead by the leaping Herschelle Gibbs at midwicket.

Carlisle finally reached his fifty off 96 balls, but then holed out to long-off off Ontong for 51. Zimbabwe were now a mere 118 for four in the 38th over.

Dion Ebrahim and Grant Flower tried to make up for lost time, but with mixed results and many swings and misses. Ebrahim was eventually run out for 41 attempting a desperate second, with the score 172 for five in the 48th over.

The fielder was Dippenaar, who had a fine day on the boundary and finished it by catching Grant Flower off the final ball of the innings for 27. The total was only 184 for six wickets.

Zimbabwe's bowling opened in a way sadly appropriate to the way they had performed throughout the tour: two leg-side wides by Travis Friend, followed by five more runs in the opening over, and 17 runs in his second over as Dippenaar and Gibbs enjoyed themselves.

By way of contrast, Gary Brent at the other end found line and length from the start, but Mluleki Nkala was little better than Friend at first, conceding 15 runs in his first over as the batsmen happily plundered everything astray. The fifty came up in the sixth over, but then Nkala settled down and the batsmen had to work harder.

Then came two controversial lbw decisions by umpire Mumtiaz Esat. Gibbs fell controversially for 39, well down the pitch, while the tall Kemp (1) was given his marching orders when struck by a rising ball above the roll of the pad, both to Nkala. Then Dippenaar (22) was also given out lbw, this time to Brent and adjudged by Graeme Evans, but the television appeared to confirm this decision as probably correct.

Neil McKenzie and Justin Ontong dug in grimly, while Brent finished an excellent ten overs on the trot with one for 22. Ontong found his fluency first and hit Whittall for a huge six over the sightscreen, but on 32 hit a return catch to Grant Flower. McKenzie passed 50 and hit 13 in the 41st over, bowled by Strang, to win the match and complete a clean sweep for South Africa in the series. He finished with 69 and Mark Boucher with 15.