Date-stamped : 03 Nov93 - 05:11
Zimbabwe v South Africa
World Cup Warm Up Match
Played in Harare on 5 February 1992

South Africa lived up to their pre-match expectations  when  they
beat  Zimbabwe  by 6 wickets in a one-off one day match played at
Harare Sports Club - but they sure made heavy weather of it.
All rounder Adrian Kuiper delivered the ultimate  fatal  blow,  a
lusty,  lofted drive to the cover boundary off the second ball of
the last over in front of festive crowd of more than 8000.
When Zimbabwe were pinned down to 170 all out off 49.3 overs,  it
was  thought that the big guns in the South African line-up would
rattle up the score in no time at all. It  didn't happen,   South
African  Captain  Kepler Wessels said it was all part of the game
plan.
"We were just pacing ourselves," said Wessels who  did  admit  to
some  rustiness  which would hopefully be put right as the played
more matches in the arena from where they had been banned for  22
years.
His opposite number, Dave Houghton was more  philosophical  about
the  defeat,  "We didn't have the runs to play with, did we? They
had the pace bowlers who extracted a lot of lift. They had  three
and we had one."
The South African pacemen, and in  particular  Alan  Donald,  did
have  a big say in the Zimbabwean innings. It was the 25 year old
Donald, dubbed "the fastest white bowler in the world", who  ini-
tially  rocked  Zimbabwe back on their heels when he clean-bowled
Andy Flower and Alistair Campbell with successive deliveries   in
the seventh over.
Wayne James, who was dropped in the second over off Meyrick Prin-
gle  on 0 and Andy Waller both scored 27 but like their compatri-
ots they got out trying to force the  pace  when seemingly   well
set.
Donald who is said to bowl in excess of 140 km  an  hour,  caught
the  eye with figures of 3-29 in his ten overs.  Zimbabwe too had
their bowling hero, in the burly Eddo Brandes. The  28 year   old
Brandes got rid of both Andrew Hudson and captain Kepler Wessels,
the first with the pace and the latter with the bounce  as  South
Africa struggled at 30-2 after nine overs.
Peter Kirsten and Hansie Cronje then set about a repair  job  and
after  fashioning  a  99  run  stand  for the third wicket in 119
minutes, the match was virtually sewn up.

<END> Contributed by sahal (sahal@wpi.edu)