After another day of cricket at the gorgeous Queen Sports Club in Bulawayo, South Africa, have completely turned this match in their favor after scoring 418 runs. Seeing an amped Zimbabwe crowd who were waiting to see their team dominate after nearly a decade, this Proteas unit kept them quite silent after dominating with the bowling as well. Throughout these three sessions, both sides experienced their ups and downs while trying to improve their competitiveness for their 2025-2027 WTC matches.
As South Africa are potentially one day away from their 9th straight test victory, they currently lead by 216 runs going into the third day. With Zimbabwe still trying to stand a chance and fight hard for their first test win in forever, it will be interesting to see if they can finally shift things in their favor. Renewing test-ties with each other, the result after today and further on could impact how interesting this rivalry could get once again. With that being said, there were a ton of eventful things and important points to note after today’s great day of play before they close it out in their next couple of days.
Zimbabwe’s Batting Inconsistencies Remain
Today was mostly a day of watching Zimbabwe bat after South Africa, and captain Keshav Maharaj had declared at 418 runs for 9 wickets. Although Sean Williams was back in form and able to play some classy drives that got him at 137 of just 164 balls, the rest of this batting order was all over the place. Seeing that their main batsman hit 13 boundaries, the only other piece that performed to help this squad get towards 251 runs was captain Craig Ervine. With both of them combining for 17 boundaries, the rest of this group only managed to hit 10 and were getting confused by the spinning actions from South African bowlers.
One major loss this Zimbabwe unit had was losing Brian Bennett, 19 runs of 28 deliveries, after he had a blistering injury early on. Even though it was said that Prince Masvaure could replace him, this didn’t happen, as the 36-year-old experienced piece got out for 7. Another big question on this unit remains the batting of Takudzwanshe Kaitano, duck-out today, after he came in only averaging 25.75 in tests as an opener. Someone who has struggled in other formats as well, a big reason why Zimbabwe weren’t able to carry on with their innings was due to Nick Welch getting out at just 4. Although their bottom order remained in question, Vincent Masekesa gave them some belief for future matches after being not out at 11.
South Africa’s Bowling Depth Controlled This Day
Seeing that South Africa isn’t playing with a majority of their top bowlers like Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen, and Lungi Ngidi, today was a day where their back-ups proved a lot of worth. Although Keshav Maharaj continued his elegant spinning ability and picked up three massive wickets of Sean Williams, Craig Ervine, plus Tanaka Chivanga to finish off this innings, other pieces showed up too.
The captain showed a lot of trust in his other bowling options and seemed to be right on time when to use them. Young Codi Yusuf, who was making his test match debut, managed to get a three-wicket haul in his own right while also delivering two maiden overs.
For someone who was once not taken into first-class teams because of a lack of consistency, he fluidly went through all 14 overs at just a 3.0 economy. Talking about this team’s potential fast bowler of the future in Kwena Mphaka, he struggled a bit to hit line and length at the beginning of this match, but figured it out towards the end.
As he didn’t pick up any wickets, many would think it was an unsuccessful day, but Mphaka nearly got a stumping and clean bowled in his spells. Lastly, the bowler with a huge percentage of impact was Wiaan Mulder with four bottom-order wickets and three for just three runs allowed.
The Top Order Changed Their Direction After the First Innings
Heading into session three, it was once again South Africa’s turn to bat after being up by 167 runs. An opening pair that was struggling heavily before this innings began, walked out with an intent to change their recent performances and form. With Matthew Breetzke still having problems playing controlled shots and driving the ball into open parts of the field, batsman Tony De Zorzi looked a lot more locked in during his innings. After scoring 22 runs, he was able to convert his singles into doubles and hit a magnificent boundary towards his last couple of balls he faced on day number three.
Someone who has become quick between the wickets, De Zorzi has continued striving to hit between gaps and hopes to later start an opening partnership on South Africa’s main squad in the coming years. A big all-around piece today was Wiaan Mulder once again, as he already bowled at a staggering level and followed it up with his well-executed shots of both feet. Adding 25 runs of just 47 deliveries, he hit four sublime boundaries and was eager to attack bowlers like Blessing Muzarabani plus Wellington Masakadza. Going into tomorrow, these two batsmen will hope to continue thriving like this and help put up a massive score that could be nearly impossible for Zimbabwe to chase down.
Also Read: ICC WTC 2023-25 : Temba Bavuma Slams Australia’s Horrible Sledging