Half-centuries from Graeme Smith, Gulam Bodi and AB de Villiers steered South Africa to a five-wicket victory with 19 balls to spare in the first one day international against Zimbabwe at the Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo on Wednesday.
Captain Smith scored 50, debutant Bodi made 51 and De Villiers weighed in with 63 as South Africa overhauled Zimbabwe's 206 all out from 50 overs.
The home side reached 68 for two before they lost five wickets for four runs to crash to 72 for seven in the 24th over. Their innings was marked by some reckless running between the wickets that contributed to five of their dismissals.
Elton Chigumbura (59) and Gary Brent (59 not out) picked up the pieces with conservative batting that yielded a partnership of 115 for the eighth wicket.
Although pace bowler Chris Mpofu dismissed Loots Bosman with the fourth ball of South Africa's reply, the visitors were never tested by the small target and Zimbabwe's modest attack on a slow pitch.
Bodi batted patiently in stands of 72 with Smith and 74 with De Villiers to keep the visitors on course for victory.
Vernon Philander, who scored 17 not out, ended the match in a hurry by smashing leg-spinner Timycen Maruwa for three fours from five balls.
The three-match series concludes with games in Harare on tomorrow and Sunday.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier