No luck from SA’s misfortune

Zimbabwe fail to cash in on several extraordinary Proteas dismissals

FOR a while in Bulawayo yesterday, SA must have thought the script for the second one-day international had been written by Lemony Snicket of A Series of Unfortunate Events.

FOR a while in Bulawayo yesterday, SA must have thought the script for the second one-day international had been written by Lemony Snicket of A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Then reality made a check and AB de Villiers’s team swept to victory by 61 runs to wrap up the rubber with a match to spare. But first there was fun and games, at least from a Zimbabwean perspective.

John Nyumbu bowled a sweeping Hashim Amla via his gloves — yes, really — before derailing the express train known as Quinton de Kock with the help of a fine diving catch in the covers by Elton Chigumbura, whose injured quadriceps meant he barely made it through the first game of the rubber on Sunday and relegated himself to the eighth and last bowler Zimbabwe used yesterday.

And that after De Kock had matched Jonathan Trott’s record for the fewest innings needed to reach 1,000 runs in one-dayers. They both did it in 21. The next South African on the list is Amla, in 25.

De Villiers thought he had smeared a legside delivery from Prosper Utseya down leg and duly set off on a single.

Except that the ball had not made it past wicketkeeper Richmond Mutumbami. The runout allowed Zimbabwe to register three wickets for 13 runs in 26 balls.

“I thought there were two runs there,” De Villiers said. “But the sound of (batting partner) Faf’s (du Plessis) voice was, ‘Oh my goodness! What are you doing?’” But wait. There is more. JP Duminy was bowled around his legs by probably the only delivery from Utseya that will ever turn and bounce to threatening degrees.

David Miller was on his way to big things. His huge six over long-on off Nyumbu and another sent arching high above the cover boundary off Luke Jongwe were the strokes of a man itching to make an impact.

Only to be sawn off by a poor decision by umpire Owen Chirombe. Even if Robert Mugabe himself had ordered it, there was no way Brian Vitori’s veering delivery would not have missed Miller’s leg stump by a wide margin.

Critically, Faf du Plessis hung tough for his second 50 in as many innings, a gritty 55, and shared the only half-century stand of the innings, of 69, with Duminy.

Somehow — actually, with bits from Wayne Parnell and bobs from Kyle Abbott — SA got themselves to 257 before being dismissed for just the third time in 34 one-dayers by Zimbabwe. The last came 15 years ago, when Hansie Cronje’s team crashed to 185 all out and defeat at Chelmsford in the 1999 World Cup.

That was then. This is now. Instead of complementing their bowlers’ efforts, Zimbabwe’s batsmen undermined them.

The nuggety Sean Williams’s 55, which consisted of 84 balls of impressive defiance, was the home side’s only batting performance worth noting until Neville Madziva, Nyumbu and Vitori played with pluck and passion at the end of the innings. Williams was at the crease from the 12th over — when Zimbabwe slipped to 26/3 — until the 37th, when he holed out at mid-off to Ryan McLaren.

“The bowling was spot on from the word go and we were very hungry in the field,” De Villiers said.

SA’s bowlers were their usual competitive, bristling, well-drilled selves, with Parnell and Ryan McLaren sharing six wickets to dismiss Zimbabwe for 196 with the first ball of the last over.

The series ends with a dead rubber at the same venue tomorrow.