Bowlers, Klaasen take South Africa to five-wicket win
The Zimbabwe bowlers made South Africa toil in the 118-run chase before Klaasen's 44 gave the hosts 1-0 lead in the three-match series
The Zimbabwe bowlers made South Africa toil in the 118-run chase before Klaasen's 44 gave the hosts 1-0 lead in the three-match series
Scorer: Raghav | Commentator: Vishal Dikshit
Time for the presentation:
Masakadza: We were a bit surprised by the pitch. We felt it would do a bit in the morning but it did more than that. The guys tried to knuckle down but could not. Another 50-60 runs would have been better. The guys started really well with the ball, especially on this pitch. Main thing is to get more runs on the board from here.
Lungi Ngidi is the Man of the Match: The pitch was a lot spicier than we thought, happy to continue the good form. I'm carrying a lot of confidence from Sri Lanka. Attacking the stumps was also one thing today, the ball was nipping around a bit. We just tried to hit the lengths, the wicket did the rest. KG told me at the beginning, 'You can have the wind, I'll run into it,' and I tried to use it as much as I could. After the first ball, I thought it was stronger and had to adjust to it. Very happy, I just want to keep putting my hand up. International cricket is a lovely challenge.
Duminy: The pitch definitely did more than we expected, there was always something for the bowlers, even the spinners. It was a tough chase. Touch fuller length was the way to go and try to nick them off, so credit to the bowlers to pull it off. It was quite different from the usual Kimberley wicket. We couldn't quite execute all our plans, but all in all happy with the win.
That's all from us today, then. Who knew even defending 117 would turn out to be interesting. We move over to Bloemfontein now for the second ODI on October 3. Do join us again, like you did today. Until then, it's goodbye from Vishal along with Akshay, Ankur and Hemant. Ciao!
3.07pm Zimbabwe's bowlers did really well there to make a match of this despite being bowled out for their lowest score against South Africa. 117 was hardly going to be enough, even against a second-string SA middle order. Zimbabwe need to post bigger scores and hold on to their catches to turn coach Lalchand Rajput's words of beating SA into reality. The hosts, on the other hand, will know they have work to do if they want to beat Zimbabwe easily and work towards the goal of the 2019 World Cup. Their bowlers put on a terrific show too, but some of their batsmen gave away their wickets to unnecessary shots.
Duminy, especially, looked scratchy when the team was in trouble but he also went past 5000 ODI runs, the ninth South African overall. Not a bad day for him, overall.
Just three more to go
Ngidi tipped his hat to Dale Steyn, who didn't play the opening ODI but is in the squad and seems to be embracing the mentor role envisioned by the coach
The Zimbabwe bowlers made South Africa toil in the 118-run chase before Klaasen's 44 gave the hosts 1-0 lead in the three-match series
The three-match ODI series kicks off in Kimberley, with the hosts taking on a rejuvenated Zimbabwe side boosted by the return of three key players