Shezi gets his ODI chance

HARARE and Bulawayo are 366km apart as the crow flies. In test terms, the gap between SA and Zimbabwe is further than that. But, as one-day cricket rivals, it is closer.

Hashim Amla’s team proved the first half of that assertion true when they did not need to get out of third gear to win the one-off test by nine wickets with a day to spare in Harare on Tuesday.

But A B de Villiers’s men are less likely to be able to canter to victory in the first of three one-day internationals between the teams in Bulawayo tomorrow.

The home side will fancy their chances in the shorter, less predictable format and on a Queens Sports Club pitch that tends to be even flatter than Harare Sports Club’s already sleepy surface.

They will also like the look of an attack without Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, who, along with Vernon Philander, have been rested for the series.

Or, in Brendan Taylor’s disarmingly honest assessment delivered as Zimbabwe were licking their wounds after the test: “Now that Dale and Morne are gone for a while, that will give us some confidence.

“But the one-day series will be a new challenge. I guess we’re more comfortable with the format, and Bulawayo’s slower pitch suits our style of play.” That said, Zimbabwe have won only two of their 31 completed ODIs against SA – and the most recent of them was more than 14 years ago.

Also, although SA’s bowling strength is without two stars, the squad remains packed with potent pacemen.

Kyle Abbott, Marchant de Lange, Ryan McLaren and Wayne Parnell would all walk into many world teams, as would Beuran Hendricks, who was selected then had to withdraw with a back injury.

But much of the focus will be on Mthokozisi Shezi, the leftarmer from the Dolphins who has earned his first SA call-up.

None of the regular batsmen has been rested, and the only new face on that front is the Knights’ Rilee Rossouw.

With a World Cup looming in six months’ time, SA coach Russell Domingo said it was “great” to have such a wide selection.

But he does not expect the Zimbabweans to behave like laboratory rats in SA’s grand plan to win a major trophy.

“They are a very competitive one-day side,” Domingo said.

“We came here two years ago for some T20s and they whipped our socks.”

That was in July 2012 when an experimental SA side stumbled to embarrassing defeats to Zimbabwe and Bangladesh in an unofficial triangular series.

This time, things are likely to be different. But humility is healthy . . .