South Africa complete easy victory over Zimbabwe to win test series
South Africa, who were put into bat and declared their first innings on 626-5, bowled Zimbabwe out for 220, having enforced the follow-on after skittling out the home side for 170 in their first innings.
Zimbabwe were 51-1 in their second innings overnight and, although they added 92 runs in the morning session, they regularly lost wickets and were all out before tea.
Seamer Corbin Bosch took 4-38 to clean up the tail, with three wickets for spinner Senuran Muthusamy.
Takudzwanashe Kaitano (40), Nick Welch (55) and skipper Craig Ervine (49) offered resistance in a clash best remembered for the decision by South Africa stand-in captain Wiaan Mulder not to chase down the highest score in a test innings.
Mulder was 367 not out, 34 runs away from breaking Brian Lara's 21-year-old landmark of 400 for West Indies against England, when he decided to declare the innings at lunch on the second day.
With one of cricket's significant milestones in his sights, and plenty of time left in the five-day contest, Mulder's decision not to attempt to break the record was met with astonishment.
But the 27-year-old all-rounder, whose test batting average before the match was 26.2, felt it would be inappropriate to dislodge one of the game's greats from the record books.
'Respecting the game is really important and Lara is one of the greatest ever to play the game and deserves to keep that record,' Mulder said at a press conference after play on Monday.
His knock, however, was the fifth-highest score in a test and a South Africa record. He also took three wickets and snagged three catches in the match.
South Africa rested most of the team that won the World Test Championship against Australia at Lord's last month but still proved far too strong for their neighbours as they also won last week's first test by 328 runs.
They have now won 10 successive test matches and next take on Pakistan away in October. Zimbabwe's next test outing is a two-match series against New Zealand in Bulawayo that starts at the end of the month.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
3 minutes ago
- The Independent
Ben Stokes enjoying ‘high quality' games between England and India despite draw
Ben Stokes praised a showing of 'high-quality cricket' between England and India as the fourth Test ended in a draw. England reached 669 in their first innings before the game fizzled out, with India closing the day on 425 for four. KL Rahul fell for 90 before Jofra Archer then dismissed Shubman Gill for 103 and Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar both scored tons. Stokes hailed the quality of the Test, telling Sky Sports: 'I thought Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett's opening partnership was incredibly crucial in the way we could sort of lay the foundations for the game. 'The opening partnership, the way they took the Indian attack on, the rate they were managing to score at it sort of allowed us to go, 'right we're going to try and bat once' and look to hopefully bowl India out. 'It started great yesterday with two wickets in the first over, but it was one of those wickets where if you got in, you felt like you were going to be the one to make the mistake to get out. 'It's been a back-and-forth series so far, we've been throwing punches and India have been throwing punches back at us, it's just been real high-quality cricket – two very good teams. 'Got to give credit to the way India came out here and performed under the pressure they were.' With the game destined for a draw, the final stages of the match saw India's batters electing against shaking hands with 15 overs left. Jadeja and Sundar scored hundreds before shaking hands and Stokes revealed he offered to shake with the aim of protecting his bowling attack. 'I think all the hard work was done by India, they both played incredibly well,' Stokes added. 'It got to that point where there was obviously only one result and there was no chance I was going to risk any of my big, fast bowlers for injuries with one more game to go. '(Liam Dawson) has bowled so many overs this game, his body started to get a little bit tired and cramp up in the legs. 'I wasn't risking any of my frontline bowlers for that last half-an-hour.' Stokes appeared to be troubled by his left leg and a problem in his right shoulder, and admitted he was 'pretty sore'. 'It's been a big five or six weeks,' he said. 'I'll always try and give everything that I possibly can. Try and run through a brick wall. 'I ask the guys up there to run through a brick wall for the team. I'll always try and do the same to try and lead by example in that sense. ' Bowling, being out in the field all that kind of stuff it is tough work, but pretty sore.' When asked specifically about his shoulder, he added: 'It's just a workload thing, got through a fair few amount of overs and just everything starts creeping up on you. 'I'll keep trying, keep going. As I always say to all the bowlers, pain is only an emotion.'
The Guardian
4 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Shubman Gill battles through pain and stress in peculiar summer for India
The moment of shared pain came in the first hour. Ben Stokes had already bowled four overs with a grimace, exuding weapons-grade main-character energy, constantly having to massage the source of discomfort by his right shoulder. His heart was still intact, though, as he burst through the crease. He had Shubman Gill dropped on 81 and dismissed the resolute KL Rahul for 90 with an lbw scuttler, the first wicket in more than two sessions. Gill, unbeaten on 90, faced up for the first ball of Stokes's fifth over. He would have been wary of the one bound to keep low, ready for pretty much any ball after facing 192 deliveries and spending two days in the field before that. But then came the explosion, the ball deflecting off his glove into the lid. The bat dropped, the helmet came off, the right hand his only concern. Stokes, even with this victory of sorts, looked broken. The pair could easily have fallen into an embrace like two punched-up heavyweights after going 12 rounds. Except both had to go on. Gill recovered and got to three figures – his fourth hundred of the series – launched his roar, then kissed and raised his bat. He had a look that said he was up for more, and a forward defence that has irritated England over the past month. It was natural to think of Ricky Ponting on this ground 20 years ago, another captain holding on for his team to secure the draw. But an awkward swish outside off against Jofra Archer brought the edge before lunch and sent him away for 103. England were ready to wrap up the series. Gill has had a peculiar summer, extraordinary batting feats to go with the stresses of his new role. With his hundred, he joined Don Bradman and Sunil Gavaskar, the only other two captains to hit four tons in a series. Gill is the first to do so away from home. He began this series with the reputation of a white-ball virtuoso still waiting to master the red. He will head to its conclusion with more records in danger, confirmation that he belongs at No 4, continuing the great lineage. Before him, Virat Kohli, before him, Sachin Tendulkar. But there's the brutality of being captain, too. Maybe there's been some respite for Gill when he has batted during this series, just the ball to focus on and none of the other noise. His side have been particularly muddled in this Test. They welcomed back the No 3 dropped after the first Test and, once again, favoured a struggling seamer over the brilliance of Kuldeep Yadav, a wrist-spinner whose continued absence has hurt not only India but the spectacle of this series, too. Gill waited an age to introduce the drift of Washington Sundar in England's first innings, a wasted opportunity after the off-spinner's excellence at Lord's. This is still a side trying to work it all out after the departure of giants, Kohli to go with Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin in retirement. Is it harsh to discuss flaws when Gill has done what he's done? That's just how this thing works. As Liam Dawson twirled away in his first Test in eight years, tasked with winning it on the final day, voices in the commentary box rightly honed in on what he was getting wrong, lines and lengths questioned, the comeback story quickly forgotten. The demands are high, particularly when you reach the level of Gill's office. What Gill's side does still have is fight with the bat. Ravindra Jadeja showed it at Lord's when he tried to win it in ones, only for late heartbreak at the other end. But he had a more capable partner this time, Sundar determined to stay the course and watch England combust, shrugs to go with hands on heads, the back half of the final day somehow devoid of any real drama. The hosts were having to contend with that unfamiliar result: a draw. Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion As we entered the final 15 overs, the side that began Sunday dreaming of survival were happy to keep carrying on, centuries still on for both southpaws. Stokes fed India Harry Brook's pies to form a bizarre scene as Jadeja tucked in, finally hitting a hundred after four half-centuries in the series. Sundar still wanted to show off his forward defence before getting to his maiden Test century off 206 balls. They wanted to bat, bat and bat, just as Gill has done all series, a side playing in their captain's image.
Daily Mail
4 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Liam Dawson and Jofra Archer didn't hit the spot against India - and why a final Test rejig is needed for England, writes NASSER HUSSAIN
England were forced to work exceptionally hard on a backbreaking pitch in Manchester but when Jofra Archer and Liam Dawson needed to come to the fore, they didn't quite do it. After lunch on the fifth day, Archer didn't hit the top of off stump enough, and Dawson didn't hit the rough enough. Ben Stokes had bowled so well in the morning, and his success, leaning away when bowling to right handers, was why he bowled such a long spell. The reason he got the most out of the pitch from the Jimmy Anderson End was that he combined that lean away with aiming for where the cracks were and taking the ball onto the stumps from that angle. Compared to his colleagues, he made it look like it was two different pitches, hitting the deck really hard, creating uneven bounce, which was a remarkable effort with his shoulder injury. But the two left-handers Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja negated this as he had to bowl round the wicket and by the time he did so, he was also knackered and his shoulder was sore because he'd bowled such a long spell. So it was then down to Jofra Archer, England's best bowler against left handers, but he didn't quite get it right in the afternoon session. Which then meant Stokes turned to his other strong fifth day option - the left arm spin of Dawson. For his first Test match back in eight years, he bowled okay, I just think he missed that rough quite a bit, and it was noticeable walking off at tea, that Stokes called Dawson over, almost showing him where it was. Make no mistake. The reason there have been four out of four County Championship draws here at Old Trafford this summer is because for finger spinners there's not massive turn. Even Jadeja couldn't get it spitting. Yes, Dawson was picked to have an impact at the end of the game, but it's not like it was in Chennai or Galle or Mumbai. It was just offering a bit of turn, but because he doesn't quite have the drop of Shoaib Bashir, he can't quite get it up and down into that rough. He's short, and as he collapses a little bit in his action, he couldn't quite get it full enough. Stokes was leaving the gap, wanting the batsmen to drive so he could get them bowled through the gate. He hit that area a few times and it spun a bit, and he could have gone a bit wider to the right handers, but I wouldn't over-judge him because it was his first game back and it wasn't like he was bowling on a spitting cobra of a pitch. His dropped catch - one of three by England - would have hurt him, as it proved quite costly. India captain Shubman Gill was on 46, and his dismissal on day four rather than Sunday would have made it a different contest. England worked seriously hard for little reward and they obviously had some tired legs by the end. Stokes has got another Test match in three days' time at The Oval and he can't keep putting himself through that. If England had won here, I would have considered playing him as a specialist batter to continue his good form, or even tell him to have a blow, and get the shoulder sorted. But as it's a live game he's obviously going to have to play now, perhaps as a batter who bowls a bit. The final Test of the series has turned into a bit of a selection conundrum actually and I think it might require a bit of a rejig, with Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson coming in for Brydon Carse and Chris Woakes, who left the field at the end feeling his calf. Potentially you'd go for Jamie Overton as well, if Archer says he's not fit. The question is: can Archer go back to back? It's one only the individual can answer. With all the injuries he's had it would be fully understandable if he said he wasn't able to play a third straight Test and I might take the decision out of his hands even if he said yes.
