South Africa vs Zimbabwe, 3rd Match, Pool B - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Series: ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Venue: Seddon Park, Hamilton Date & Time: Feb 15, 02:00 PM LOCAL

South Africa will be eager to come up with a clinical performance. © Cricbuzz

While South Africa turned in a mixed performance in the two warm-ups leading up to to their opening World Cup match, they will put that aside and aim for a bright start to their campaign when they take on Zimbabwe. Proteas beat Sri Lanka by five wickets in a rain-curtailed contest before New Zealand, one of the pre-tournament favourites, brought them down several pegs by inflicting a 134-run defeat. The latter performance indicated amply that the South Africans haven't completely cast off their habit of absolutely falling apart on a bad day.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe, the 10th ranked ODI nation, will be approaching the game with a lot of confidence of back of their fine showing in the warm-ups. They left co-hosts New Zealand in a lot of trouble at 157/7 before rain had the final say in their first practice match. A few days later, the Elton-Chigumbura led side shocked Sri Lanka by chasing down 280, thanks to an attacking century from Hamilton Masakadza.

One team is considered as one of the favourites of the tournament; the other isn't good enough to deserve consideration. Be that as it may, come Sunday when South Africa play their neighbours Zimbabwe in the Pool B match at Hamilton's Seddon Park, there would be no dearth of excitement among expatriates from both countries.

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He got to his fifty by hitting Steyn for a six over long-on, and followed that up with a fine struck four two balls later. In Steyn's next over, Masakadza continued the big hits and hit the pacer spearhead for two consecutive boundaries.

His relentless attack caught the World Cup hopefuls by surprise and they will be hoping for someone to get the prized wicket of Masakadza before he hurts more top bowlers' ego.

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In the end South Africa's class stood out. That and their ability to come out trumps in important situations helped them keep a fighting Zimbabwe at bay and eventually claim a 62-run win. Masakadza, Chibhabha and Brendon Taylor's performances with the bat stood out, but they will want to ensure they have a player who can carry on and make a bigger contribution in the games to follow.

Zimbabwe might have lost this game, but they shouldn't lose hope. The way they are playing, they can well cause an upset in the next few games. They proved it when they had NZ on the mat in the first warm-up, defeated Sri Lanka in the second and put up a spirited performance today. On the other hand, South Africa will know that they managed to win the game, but it was not that convincing. Their top-order completely failed today and the way Steyn took a beating, they need to pull their socks up if they are to win the World Cup.