On a day that mostly saw South Africa dominating throughout, they are potentially one day away from putting the nail in the coffin against Zimbabwe. After yesterday went by a little slowly, and it looked like their opponents were creeping back into this match, the Proteas put their foot on the gas pedal and are currently leading by over 500 runs.
Coming off a huge World Test Championship victory, this was the right way for South Africa to kick off their journey after being crowned titleholders. Captain Keshav Maharaj really played a vital role today to keep the crowd out of it and make several fans leave early.
As this match is going into Day 4, it will be interesting to see if Zimbabwe can shock the world with their batting after a sluggish start and help their confidence going into the second test match. Meanwhile, South Africa will just look to ease their way through the finish line and hope there are no twists or turns in this match. With today being a totally one-sided affair towards the visitors’ favor, it is important to see what positive or negative outcomes came out of this Day 3 for either side before this first test likely closes out tomorrow.
South Africa Finally Showed A Balanced Attack
As it was noted in the first innings that South Africa relied too much on their bottom and middle orders, today’s story ended up being different. This group hit 369 runs before getting all out, and all-rounder Wiaan Mulder had a huge role in that total. Someone who was struggling with batting consistency in all three formats, he finally got to his second century in style by scoring 147 runs off 206 balls.
The 27-year-old not only showed his ability to hit classy drives, but he also started playing attacking shots towards the end of the innings. Knocking two blistering sixes out of the ground, he mostly got off the mark with Tony De Zorzi this morning.
Meanwhile, David Bedingham played an impactful 35-run knock at a pretty fast rate to create another great partnership with Mulder. Although the two young stars in Dewald Brewis and Lhuan-dre Pretorious got out pretty quickly, Corbin Bosch came in and hitting four gratifying boundaries to reach a total of 36 runs.
Seeing that he kept on dragging shots into open parts of the ground, the all-rounder was able to convert singles into doubles. But today’s biggest factor that makes this South African batting look very deep and well-balanced was the 51-run performance of Keshav Maharaj through his splendid control at the crease.
Zimbabwe’s Pace Attack Shows Great Potential Once Again
Even though Zimbabwe managed to give up 369 runs in this 2nd innings, their top three pacers showed what they could turn into after strong performances today. With Vincent Masekesa being their only true liability after having an expensive 5.09 economy, considering it was a test match, he also ended up picking two massive wickets of Lhuan-dre Pretorious, plus Dewald Brewis today.
Now talking about their main quickies, Blessing Muzarabani only gave up 38 runs in 11.5 overs and got the final wicket by getting a clean-bowled on Kwena Mphaka. As he continues building his name, the 28-year-old from Murehwa, Zimbabwe, also showed amazing length bowling on target.
With his development, another key performer in this bowling attack has been Tanaka Chivanga, who managed to pick up 6 total wickets in the test match. Someone who brings his arm up high and confuses the batsman with angles, he took out both of South Africa’s openers once again.
Lastly, Wesley Madhevere is their key spinner, whose off-spin ability allows him to cut the ball in and out while handling hitters who try going big. He managed to end Wiaan Mulder’s amazing innings with a miss-hit and also got the starting Kyle Verreynne out the same way. What makes him special is his ability to get clean-bowled wickets and also create tons of LBW chances against these six hitters.
A Similar Struggle With The Other Team
As Zimbabwe has struggled heavily in their run chase so far, their top order, today, had a very similar issue to what South Africa was facing. Although their opponents had a deeper batting unit down the line, this Zimbabwe squad can’t even rely on that outside of Craig Ervine and Sean Williams.
Bowlers Codi Yusuf and Keshav Maharaj had “The Chevrons” opening pair in check, with both confusing them after alternating between pace plus spin. Allowing just a combined 11 runs in 9 overs, Zimbabwe’s opener Takudzwanshe Kaitano once again struggled to get off the mark. After facing 61 deliveries with 12 runs scored, he got out on a slower ball hit right to Lhuan-Dre Pretorious for catching practice.
On the other end, Prince Masvaure is still not out, but almost got bowled by Kwena Mphaka and Corbin Bosch in this match. Someone who still has a good track record in tests with four half-centuries, he has only scored 5 runs in 49 deliveries and is still struggling to string the ball to any open parts.
With no Brian Bennett in his sights, it will be interesting to see if Masvaure can form any sort of partnership with Sean Williams after not finding any luck with Kaitano. If not, the performance of Zimbabwe will be up to Craig Ervine and Sean Williams as the group’s two most experienced batsmen, plus Nick Welch has never been in form.
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