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South Africa A may have won today's 1st ODI in Bulawayo, but for once Zimbabwe didn't come away completely humiliated. SA won the toss and elected to bat, getting off to a blistering start before Zimbabwe's bowlers (lacking in practice after Tuesday's bus problems) finally got into their stride - South Africa reached 178/2 before the wickets began to fall regularly, and that start allowed SA to reach a healthy 274/7 by the end of their allotted 50 overs, with openers Bosman and van Wyk responsible for 107 of that. With the ball, Zimbabwe shared the love with no less than 9 players taking a spell - Gary Brent (2/59 from 8 overs) and Prosper Utseya (2/41 from 10 overs) were the pick of the bunch. Friday Kasteni (30/0 from 3) will probably be wishing he hadn't bothered.

Zim got off to the worst possible start, with Stuart Matsikenyeri departing on the first legal delivery of the innings, and when Sean Williams left with the score on 47/4, also for a duck, the home side were looking typically shaky. The partnerships of Hamilton Masakadza and Brendan Taylor, and later Masakadza and Elton Chigumbura, steadied the ship, but until the arrival of Chigumbura the scoring rate was far too low to be of use. Chigumbura's battling 61 off 46 balls was impressive, but came too late to save the game, and Zim ended their 50 overs on 227/6 - 47 runs short of the target.

Not a disaster, then, but not the ideal game either - but after recent performances, the only way was up, anyway. Check below the cut for the scorecard.
South Africa A 274/7 (50 overs), Zimbabwe A 227/6 (50 overs)
South Africa A win by 47 runs.

Scorecard

South Africa A innings (50 overs maximum)                       R
LL Bosman             c Chigumbura       b Brent               31
MN van Wyk            lbw                b Utseya              76
AN Petersen           c Brent            b Utseya              60
JL Ontong             st Taylor          b Williams            10
JM Kemp                                  b Ireland             33
VD Philander          st Taylor          b Brent               26
JA Morkel             not out                                  22
RJ Peterson           run out (Williams)                        1
R Telemachus          not out                                   1
Extras                (b 2, lb 1, w 5, nb 4)                   12
Total                 (7 wickets, 50 overs)                   274

Did not bat: AC Thomas, T Tshabalala.

FoW: 1-62 (Bosman, 9.3 ov), 2-178 (Petersen, 34.2 ov),
     3-189 (van Wyk, 36.4 ov), 4-195 (Ontong, 39.1 ov),
     5-244 (Kemp, 46.5 ov), 6-266 (Philander, 49.2 ov),
     7-267 (Peterson, 49.4 ov).

Bowling                      O      M      R      W
Ireland                      6      0     36      1 (1w)
Garwe                        4      0     26      0 (1w)
Brent                        8      1     59      2 (1w)
Chigumbura                   6      1     28      0 (4nb)
Utseya                      10      0     41      2
Williams                    10      1     35      1 (1w)
Matsikenyeri                 2      0      9      0
Kasteni                      3      0     30      0
Masakadza                    1      0      7      0

Zimbabwe A innings (target: 275 runs from 50 overs)             R
S Matsikenyeri                           b Thomas               0
CJ Chibhabha                             b Morkel              10
F Kasteni             run out (Philander)                      22
H Masakadza                              b Philander           44
SC Williams           c van Wyk          b Morkel               0
BRM Taylor                           c & b Peterson            47
E Chigumbura          not out                                  61
GB Brent              not out                                  20
Extras                (lb 5, w 15, nb 4)                       24
Total                 (6 wickets, 50 overs)                   227

Did not bat: P Utseya, TN Garwe, AJ Ireland.

FoW: 1-2 (Matsikenyeri, 0.3 ov), 2-22 (Chibhabha, 5.5 ov),
     3-45 (Kasteni, 12.4 ov), 4-47 (Williams, 13.2 ov),
     5-123 (Taylor, 35.6 ov), 6-187 (Masakadza, 45.1 ov).

Bowling                      O      M      R      W
Thomas                      10      3     43      1 (1nb, 4w)
Morkel                       8      2     25      2 (8w)
Philander                    9      1     37      1 (2nb)
Telemachus                   4      0     19      0
Peterson                    10      0     38      1
Tshabalala                   9      0     60      0 (1nb, 1w)