van Wyk guides South Africa to victory

South Africa A 280 and 132 for 2 (van Wyk 63*) beat Zimbabwe Select 242 and 169 by eight wickets
Scorecard

South Africa A eased to an eight-wicket win over Zimbabwe Select at the Harare Sports Club, taking a little over an hour to score the 88 runs they needed to take a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.

Zimbabwe's only hope was to make early breakthroughs, and those did not come as Morne van Wyk and Paul Harris extended their second-innings stand to 82 before Harris holed out in the deep off Stuart Matsikenyeri. But van Wyk and Hashim Amla knocked off the remaining 14 needed with no alarms.

Zimbabwe will take heart from this performance in which they held their own in the first innings, but they are still struggling in terms of technique with their batting and consistency in their bowling. It should also be noted that despite the team's name, this is almost a full Zimbabwe XI and almost all of the side will face a full-strength South Africa in three ODIs later this month.

Brendan Taylor should return from his self-imposed exile for the second match with starts at Bulawayo on Monday, and Terry Duffin may also get his chance after yet another failure at the top of the order by Tino Mawoyo.