The Zimbabwe Board XI, having done nothing to deserve it during the first seven sessions of the match, decided to move into top gear during the last two and romped home to an eight-wicket victory over Gauteng B, despite losing a third of their overs to rain.

Basically the home side's indifferent play lulled Gauteng into a false sense of security, as they set the Board XI over 300 at just four runs an over on a pitch that, although taking turn, was still holding together perfectly – and with only one spinner in their team. Any Man of the Match award would certainly have gone to opener Alistair Campbell, who completed two masterly centuries in the match.

The Gauteng batsmen, resuming at 107 for four, were soon making hay at the expense of some innocuous and often ill-directed Zimbabwe Board bowling. Vaughan van Jaarsveld in particular enjoyed the pull whenever the bowlers pitched short, which was frequently in the first twenty minutes before the penny dropped and Guy Whittall came on to put a brake on the scoring with his accurate medium-paced swingers.

Whittall finally broke through on the stroke of morning drinks, yorking van Jaarsveld for 40; 159 for five – 254 ahead - in the 60th over, so Gauteng were not making very good progress if they were planning an eventual declaration. As Andrew Locke settled in, Harris played the shot of the day, a superb flat-bat six over extra cover off Whittall, who appeared to be tiring a little. Later in the over a cut to the boundary brought Harris his fifty.

Raymond Price took some stick before Locke (11) drove a catch straight at extra cover, and shortly afterwards Gauteng declared at 216 for six wickets, with Harris unbeaten on 69. This set the Zimbabwe Board XI 312 to win in 78 overs, a rate of exactly four an over. Considering the potential of the experienced home side, even if few of them had played up to it to date in this match, it was a generous target, and the Gauteng captain had perhaps been deceived by the lacklustre performances of the Zimbabwe players hitherto in the match.

While Alistair Campbell played himself in carefully, Mark Vermeulen had no such inhibitions, and hit his fifth ball, from off-spinner Siraaj Conrad who took the new ball, for six into the bush wide of long-on. But on the stroke of lunch Vermeulen (9) snicked a fine ball from Gerard de Bruin that moved away to be caught at the wicket and the match was wide open.

Campbell fed himself voraciously on some short bowling from de Bruin immediately after lunch, pulling effortlessly to the midwicket boundary. New batsman Richie Sims also played some good strokes and enjoyed a life on the midwicket boundary when 25. He caught Campbell on 39, but by now a new element threatened to encroach on the match – the weather. One of the young Zimbabwe players, victim of a joke by coach Trevor Penney, came into the scorers' box and asked for a copy of the Duckworth-Lewis regulations in case it rained!

With thunder in the distance, Sims became bogged down when approaching his fifty, and Campbell was first to the landmark with a classic boundary through extra cover off Walter Masimola. In the same over Sims finally flicked a two through midwicket to reach his first fifty at this level and then resume normal aggressive service. Campbell, who seemed to have assumed the anchor role, had a lucky escape when he played a ball from Conrad on to his stumps without disturbing a bail.

The powerfully built Sims drove Conrad for six into the sightscreen, but heavy drops of rain started falling four minutes before tea and the players left the field. The Board XI were well placed for victory at 166 for one off just 32 overs, but all depended on whether the ground would catch the edge of the storm or the full force.

The genuine rain was steady for about 15 minutes, but it was followed by an annoying light drizzle that lasted for another 30. 80 minutes' play – 23 overs - was lost in all, leaving the home side the remaining 23 overs in which to score another 146 runs, with nine wickets left.

Campbell and Sims continued the chase in good style until Sims, trying to hit a yorker from Conrad across the line, was adjudged lbw for 88, a superb innings at just the right time for the 22-year-old former Academy student. The pair had added 186 for the second wicket.

Campbell duly reached his second century of the match, for the first time in his career – unfortunately it will not count in the first-class records - but the required rate was now seven an over. Still, he and Guy Whittall cruised along almost effortlessly at that rate, never seeming flurried, unlike the sweating (and swearing) Gauteng fielders. With four overs to go, Whittall hit successive balls for six and four to eliminate most of the remaining pressure.

Five were needed off the final over, and Campbell (149 not out) drove a boundary through extra cover off the fourth to clinch victory. Whittall (52 not out) gave him fine support in a 118-run partnership off 99 balls.

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