Theron, Amla, De Villiers Lead South Africa To Big Win

Theron, Amla, De Villiers Lead South Africa To Big Win

AB de Villiers blasted a quick unbeaten century to condemn Zimbabwe to their second defeat in three days

©REUTERS / Action Images

South Africa 273-2 (Amla 110, de Villiers 101no) beat
Zimbabwe 268 (Taibu 78, Theron 5-44) by eight wickets
Second One-Day International, Potchefstroom
Scorecard

Starring performances with the bat from Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers followed up Juan Theron's five-wicket haul to enable South Africa to score a crushing eight-wicket victory over Zimbabwe in the second One-Day International in Potchefstroom.

Juan Theron picked up a maiden five-wicket haul in ODI cricket as Zimbabwe were dismissed for 268 and centuries from Amla and de Villiers steered South Africa to their victory target in just 39 overs.

Playing in just his second match, pace bowler Theron returned figures of five for 44 before Amla stroked 110 - his second such score of the series - and de Villiers an unbeaten 101 to help South Africa move into an unassailable 2-0 series lead.

Tatenda Taibu top scored by making 78 in 90 balls for the tourists but Theron, aided by two wickets apiece from Charl Langeveldt and Wayne Parnell, kept the Zimbabweans in check.

After a 59-run stand between openers Brendan Taylor (32) and Chamu Chibhabha (19), Theron took two wickets in two balls to have Taylor and Sean Williams (0) caught by wicket-keeper AB de Villiers.

Theron went on to bowl Elton Chigumbura for 13, have Keith Dabengwa caught by de Villiers for 28 and have Graeme Cremer bowled for four to end the innings.

Taibu played a lone hand, hitting four fours and a six in a 90-ball innings that kept Zimbabwe moving towards a competitive score before his dismissal, in the batting power play, knocked them back and they could only add a further 40 runs before they were eventually dismissed in the 49th over.

South Africa then continued to prey on Zimbabwe's weakness in their seam bowling attack and openers Amla and Graeme Smith (40) helped themselves to an 84-run opening partnership.

That was broken when Smith, who hammered five fours and a six, was caught by Dabengwa off Chigumbura but any thoughts Zimbabwe had of getting back into the game were erased by Amla and de Villiers, who shared 139 runs for the second wicket.

Amla faced 102 balls during his innings, hitting 12 fours on the way to his fifth ODI century and he was dismissed when he was caught by Prosper Utseya off Shingirai Masakadza.

De Villiers raced to an unbeaten 101 in just 72 balls, blasting five fours and five sixes during his eighth ODI century, and he was accompanied by JP Duminy, unbeaten on 15, as the Proteas eased home with 11 overs to spare.

South Africa won the opening match by 64 runs and the final game, in Benoni, is on 22nd October.

© Cricket World 2010