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ENGLAND A fly from Harare to Johannesburg this afternoon to begin the South Africa leg of their two-month tour, leaving Zimbabwe with an unbeaten record - if only just.

Their third one-day international against Zimbabwe A at Alexandra on Saturday was another exciting affair, which England might well have lost, as with the previous two. They passed a slightly revised target, under the Duckworth-Lewis method, with two wickets in hand and, again, upper order failure had to be papered over by the middle order.

Victory ensured a 3-0 series win in the one-day internationals the three-match Test series was won 1-0 - and a bright end to the Zimbabwe leg of the tour.

The match was Darren Maddy's first chance as captain on the tour, and for much of England's innings it looked as though the Leicestershire batsman would end up embarrassed as a loser until Matthew Windows, with 48 off 58 balls, and Chris Read, 36 off 43, turned the tide.

England's bowlers did well to restrict the Zimbabweans. Andrew Flintoff hit the pitch hard with his seamers, taking four good wickets, and the World Cup selectors should find it hard to omit him from the final squad on current all-round form. Paul Franks looked more effective than the seam bowler he replaced on the tour, Jason Lewry.

Nevertheless, following the loss of Maddy to a catch at fine leg in the first over, Flintoff's complacent miscued pull was an unworthy dismissal on Saturday, and it left England struggling to pick up momentum.

Maddy, in his first game as captain at first-class level, made a blizzard of decisions in the field after his first correct call, the toss. He made 12 bowling changes, sent down eight overs himself in four spells and opened the batting. A back spasm prevented Darren Thomas from bowling more than seven overs, and Graeme Swann could not grip a wet ball for his off-spin.

Maddy, after hectic juggling of his resources, wondered whether he had taken on too much responsibility. ``It certainly felt that way,'' he said. ``When I walked out to bat to take first strike, my head was still spinning around and I was thinking 'what's going on?' I just feel sorry for Alec Stewart, who has to keep wicket as well for the senior side. All credit to him.''

For the past month England were given fiercer competition than they must have expected, except in the early warm-ups. That suggested that Zimbabwean cricket was improving, and certainly the efforts of their fringe players in the one-day series was impressive.

Stuart Carlisle and Dirk Viljoen, two batsmen, enhanced their reputations, though it might be too late for the injury-prone seam bowler Eddo Brandes, destroyer of Mike Atherton's side two years ago, to make the plane for England this summer.