With day two officially over between Zimbabwe and South Africa, it’s clear that one side is in a way stronger position than the other. As the Proteas, currently lead by 405 runs, they did a ton of their damage on both sides today to create an even bigger gap. With them scoring 626 runs on just 5 wickets before declaring, their bowling prowess helped create a follow-on against Zimbabwe, and nearly chase down 450 runs.
As captain, Wiaan Mulder had a historical all-rounder performance today, the way he performed and his captinancy really motivated the rest of his unit, plus gave them the ability to perform far better than they have ever before.
Talking positively about South Africa and how they put this match completely in their favor, Zimbabwe may be in a world of trouble at the moment. Struggling completely in all three facets, it was clearly on display today as there were tons of poor bowling, dropped catches, and no batting consistency.
Despite these vast issues that occurred, there may be a slight bright side for Zimbabwe after they finished the first 16 overs of their second innings at 51/1. As day three is ahead of us, one key thing is to see the important moments of today’s match and top performers that impacted this game.
The Proteas Dominate Batting Led By Wiaan Mulder
As this South Africa unit was able to put up 465 runs after a massive day one, they controlled this game with their bats again. As captain Wiaan Mulder was at the head of this attack, he scored a historic 367 runs off 334 balls and ended up not out.
Someone who ended yesterday on 264 essentially knocked another century today in a short time to add to that total, and also finished with 49 fours. With that count already being super impressive, he was able to move around the crease and hit with relative ease as the 27-year-old all-rounder also hit four sixes, which he has never shown capability in doing during test matches prior to this.
Seeing that he was 34 runs short of Brian Lara’s record before South Africa declared, there were other middle-order batsmen who added solid knocks throughout this innings. One such was Dewald Brevis, as today it seemed like he started getting good control of bowlers before Kundai Matigimu got him out. Finishing with four boundaries in his 30-run knock, his touch seemed good, and it helped create a solid 89-run partnership with Mulder.
Lastly, Kyle Verreynne did a great job of matching Wiaan Mulder’s batting pace at 5-down, where they combined for 113 runs before calling the innings over. The wicket keeper managed to hit 42 runs and launched quite a few deliveries into open gaps, while also hammering one six.
Zimbabwe Has Another Regretful Batting Day
Having to chase 620+ runs in first innings, Zimbabwe needed a massive lift from their batting unit on this day. But, yet again, they couldn’t provide as this unit finished 170/10 and are currently trailing by 405 runs into their second innings.
Opener Takudzwanashe Kaitano had struggled to get a proper innings going as he managed to get another duck out in this match and now has only scored 12 runs in his previous three test innings. Meanwhile, his partner in Dion Myers also got taken for a catch from Kyle Verreynne after scoring one run in less than two overs. Although this group started very slowly, it looked like Wessley Madhevere and Craig Ervine were building something with their 36-run partnership before Wiaan Mulder ended it.
Although Madhevere scored 25 runs and looked like somewhat of a boundary-hitting threat with three, no one else really showed up except Sean Williams, who was moved down the order. As he finished with 83 runs, he was the only batsman there while everyone else’s wicket was falling. That included Wellington Masakadza, who was supposed to be this amazing lower-order batsman, but hadn’t proven it today after finishing with three runs before Wiaan Mulder caught his shot.
As the bottom order couldn’t do much either, someone like Blessing Muzarabani, who previously showed some power-hitting potential, ended up getting bowled and caught by Prenelan Subrayen.
South African Bowling Puts This Match Way Out of Hand
Since the Proteas’ bowling unit had a lot of runs to defend and work with, their approach seemed even more stress-free as they weren’t forcing things. Codi Yusuf set the tone as he picked up a wicket on the very first ball and made Takudzwanashe Kaitano edge it right into Kyle Verreynne’s hands.
As he had one more couple of balls later, it was the important wicket of Nick Welch and helped Yusuf finish with two wickets. Corbin Bosch also got into the mix early on as he bowled a seamer that also caused an edge right towards South Africa’s wicketkeeper. Finishing with less than a 4.0 economy, he had a very solid beginning spell with Wiaan Mulder and Codi Yusuf that caused Zimbabwe to be in a world of trouble.
Talking about Mulder, once again, he put his full all-rounder skills on display after picking up two wickets and being very economical with a near 3.33 economy. As the pacers did a wonderful job, their left-hand orthodox bowler in Senuran Muthusamy, picked up a wicket of Tafadzwa Tsiaga and had a few maiden overs despite allowing many runs.
Lastly, the biggest story of today was about Prenelan Subrayen as he picked up four wickets on debut. Not only were his right-arm offspin deliveries hard for Zimbabwe batsmen to follow, but he also has a real intensive ability of getting the ball from one side to another. His bowling, which allows him to fool opposing batsmen, was shown down the order when Zimbabwe hitters were trying to go big.
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