6TH MATCH -- ZIMBABWE v SOUTH AFRICA

Zimbabwe found themselves back in Australia, playing against opponents with a strong pace attack, but this time on a slower pitch than is normal in Australia. The pitch was dry but greenish and very spongy, and the toss was important because there would be early life for the team bowling first. Run-scoring was difficult, and both teams laboured to keep the board moving.

Iain Butchart remembers after the Zimbabwean team meeting the night before the game, some of them were sitting having a meal in the bar downstairs. Allan Donald came in and he was furious. With the semi-finals coming up, he had suggested at the South African team meeting that they bat first if they won the toss as they were sure they would beat Zimbabwe, and he thought they needed to learn to bowl at a target. Wessels apparently cut him short, and Donald spent a couple of hours downstairs buying all the drinks and getting it off his chest. In retrospect Butchart and Malcolm Jarvis both think Zimbabwe might have had a chance of beating them had South Africa batted first, as they struggled to score.

Losing the toss, Zimbabwe were put in to bat and made a slow start, trying to come to terms with the bowlers and the conditions. The South African bowlers were in excellent form. All the batsmen made some sort of start but nobody was able to pass 20. Later on, as they tried to accelerate, they lost wickets trying to slog the slower bowling of Peter Kirsten and Hansie Cronje. Ali Shah remembers trying to drive Kirsten, but only succeeding in looping the ball into the covers for a catch, while Kirsten took two other wickets caught on the boundary.

Eddo Brandes was top scorer with 20, and remembers having to face Allan Donald for the first time. He describes seeing the ball in the bowler's hand, and then it was on him virtually instantaneously. He did not get out to him, though, and briefly gave the crowd something to remember him by.

Zimbabwe only passed 150 thanks to a gallant ninth-wicket stand of 28 between tail-enders John Traicos and Malcolm Jarvis. Jarvis came in to face Donald, and anticipated the usual fast bowler's ploy of bowling a yorker first ball. He played forward firmly to it and anticipated the same next ball, only to find it whizzing past his nose! Jarvis carried on to hit a six off Brian McMillan before being out to a very high return catch.

Last man Kevin Duers also remembers facing Donald and finding his pace much greater than anything he had encountered before. He remembers stopping one of his deliveries and thinking, 'How did I get the bat there?' It was a matter of playing from instinct.

Early on in the Zimbabwean innings, Andy Flower suffered a bad blow on the hand, forcing him to retire hurt in a lot of pain. He resumed later, but the injury prevented him from fielding, so Dave Houghton was forced to take over the wicket-keeping gloves. It was several years since he had kept wicket seriously, and he does not feel he did a good job that day, although he was given no chances and conceded no byes; he suffered from stiffness for three days afterwards.

The Zimbabweans knew that their total was inadequate, but felt that had they been able to reach 200 they could have made the opposition struggle. As it was, they bowled with determination and accuracy, and made the South Africans fight all the way. The South Africans also found scoring difficult. They lost Andrew Hudson fairly early, to an inswinging yorker from Jarvis that hit his leg stump, and then Kepler Wessels was dropped in the deep. He settled down to play an anchor role and allowed the others to bat around him, but was eventually bowled slogging at Shah, in an effort to boost the scoring rate. Jarvis was not really fit to play, but he hid his injury until he had bowled nine overs, and then left the field before bowling a tenth, to pretend that it was a new injury!

There was some controversy when Adrian Kuiper mistimed a drive off Eddo Brandes to mid-off and the ball was picked up by Mark Burmester, diving forward. There was some uncertainty as to whether the ball had carried, and Kuiper stood his ground. Burmester claimed the catch, although he later admitted that he wasn't sure, and the umpire appeared to give Kuiper out on the basis of that. A replay later showed that in fact the ball had indeed bounced first, and next morning Burmester apologised to Kuiper. Peter Kirsten, in a steady confident innings, timed his and the team's innings to perfection and stayed to see South Africa home.

Again this match brought home to the Zimbabwean players the real gulf there was between themselves and the top teams in the world, and the amount of work and dedication required if they were to reach that standard themselves.

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