South Africa survived a batting collapse precipitated by a hat-trick from spinner Prosper Utseya to beat Zimbabwe by 61 runs in the third match of the triangular series on Friday.
Utseya, who finished with career-best figures of five for 36, became only the second Zimbabwean to take a hat-trick in an ODI as South Africa delivered an off-key batting performance to be bowled out for 231.
But Zimbabwe, with their best chance of rare win over a major cricketing power, fell well short of the target as they were bowled out for 170 off 38.3 overs.
Impressive hitting from Sikandar Raza and Hamilton Masakadza gave Zimbabwe a confident start, but spinner Aaron Phangiso bowled the beefy Masakadza with his fourth ball and uprooted the wicket of the dangerous Brendan Taylor for a duck.
Sean Williams and Malcolm Waller put together a 46-run fifth wicket partnership but Waller was caught off a short delivery from Dale Steyn and Williams, who top-scored for Zimbabwe with 46 runs off 79 balls, holed out to Amla at midwicket off Ryan McLaren.
The last four wickets went for 17 runs to give South Africa, whose regular one-day captain AB de Villiers missed the game with a viral infection, a comfortable win with more than 10 overs to spare.
“We have to learn to win games,” Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura told reporters. “We work hard in the nets but come the games we fall short. It’s in the head. It’s about how much you want it. Today [Friday] we didn’t show it.”
Published in The Express Tribune, August 30th, 2014.
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