BULAWAYO: South African fast bowler Corbin Bosch ended stubborn resistance by Zimbabwe’s opening batsmen with a wicket in the last over of the third day of the first Test here at the Queen’s Sports Club on Monday.

Zimbabwe, set a near-impossible target of 537 runs to win, were 32 for one at the close after Takudzwanashe Kaitano was caught at third slip after defending determinedly to make 12 off 62 balls.

Keshav Maharaj, captaining South Africa in a Test match for the first time, chose to keep Zimbabwe in the field until his team were bowled out for 369 in their second innings more than half an hour after tea.

All-rounder Wiaan Mulder, in his third match since being promoted to bat at number three, made his second Test century, batting fluently to score a Test-best 147 before being caught on the deep midwicket boundary off part-time spin bowler Wessly Madhevere.

Zimbabwe were hampered by the absence through illness of fast bowler Blessing Muzarabani. He was off the field for most of the morning which meant he could not bowl until half an hour before tea.

Tanaka Chivanga was the only pace bowler available to captain Craig Ervine for most of the innings, leaving the bulk of the bowling to be done by the spinners.

As in the first innings, South Africa scored at more than four runs an over but left-arm spinner Wellington Masakadza picked up four wickets for 98 runs.

Leg-spinner Vincent Masekesa, who took hea­vy punishment from debutants Lhuan-dre Pret­o­rius and Dewald Brevis in the first inn­ings, dismi­ssed both youngsters che­a­ply second time around.

The left-handed Preto­rius, who made 153 in the first innings, was bowled for four by a ball which spun back sharply. Brevis added only three to his first innings 51 before being bowled by a flighted delivery when he went for a big shot.

When the South African innings ended there were a minimum of 18 overs to be bowled.

Because of the number of overs bowled by the Zimbabwe spinners, who kept their team ahead of the required over rate, there was a rarity in modern Test cricket in that South Africa were able to squeeze in an extra over before the close — with unfortunate consequen­ces for Zimbabwe.

SCOREBOARD

SOUTH AFRICA (1st Innings) 418-9 (L.D. Pretorius 153, C. Bosch 100 not out; T. Chivanga 4-83)

ZIMBABWE (1st Innings) 251 (S. Williams 137; W. Mulder 4-50)

SOUTH AFRICA (2nd Innings):

M. Breetzke c Madhevere b C’vanga 1

T. de Zorzi c Williams b C’vanga 31

W. Mulder c Kaitano b Madhevere 147

D. Bedingham c Williams b M’kadza 35

L.D. Pretorius b Masekesa 4

D. Brevis b Masekesa 3

K. Verreynne c Ervine b M’kadza 36

C. Bosch b M’kadza 36

K. Maharaj b M’kadza 51

C. Yusuf not out 8

K. Maphaka b Muzarabani 8

EXTRAS (LB-5, NB-2, W-2) 9

TOTAL (all out, 82.5 overs) 369

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-1 (Breetzke), 2-64 (de Zorzi), 3-136 (Bedingham), 4-141 (Pretorius), 5-155 (Brevis), 6-259 (Mulder), 7-259 (Verreynne), 8-351 (Bosch), 9-352 (Maharaj)

BOWLING: Muzarabani 11.5-1-38-1 (1w, 1nb), Chivanga 16-0-76-2 (1w, 1nb), Masakadza 22-0-98-4, Madhevere 10-1-35-1, Masekesa 23-1-117-2

ZIMBABWE (2nd Innings):

T. Kaitano c Pretorius b Bosch 12

P. Masvaure not out 5

EXTRAS (B-4, LB-5, NB-1, W-5) 15

TOTAL (for one wicket, 18.2 overs) 32

FALL OF WICKET: 1-32 (Kaitano)

STILL TO BAT: N. Welch, S. Williams, C. Ervine, W. Madhevere, T. Tsiga, W. Masakadza, V. Masekesa, B. Muzarabani, T. Chivanga

BOWLING: Yusuf 4-1-5-0, Mulder 4-2-2-0, Maphaka 3-0-9-0 (1w, 1nb), Maharaj 5-2-6-0, Bosch 2.2-1-1-1

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2025