Zim lose by eight wickets

Theron took five for 44 as Zimbabwe were bowled out for 268. Amla hit 110 and De Villiers 101 not out to propel South Africa to a series-clinching win with 11 overs to spare. With two runs needed to win, De Villiers, on 95, danced down the pitch and hit Brendan Taylor for six over long-off to raise his century.

Tatenda Taibu made a polished 78 for Zimbabwe, but none of his team mates was able to capitalise on reasonable starts on an easy-paced pitch. Theron, 25, used clever variations of pace and length as he claimed five for 44 to take his haul of wickets to eight in his first two one-day internationals.

Theron had originally been picked only to play in two Twenty20 internationals against Zimbabwe but was added to the one-day squad following a succession of injuries to South Africa’s pace bowlers.

“It’s been a dream start for me,” said Theron, “but you tend to wake up from dreams, so the next part is to try to maintain momentum.”

Amla hit his fifth one-day international century and his fourth in his last seven innings with another fluent performance against a weak Zimbabwe bowling attack.

In repeating the score he made in the first match in Bloemfontein on Friday, Amla faced 103 balls and hit ten fours. Amla shared stands of 84 for the first wicket with Captain Graeme Smith (40) and 137 for the second wicket with De Villiers.

Taibu was on target to score his third century in five one-day internationals against South Africa until he sliced a catch to backward point off Charl Langeveldt off the first ball of the batting Powerplay, taken with seven overs remaining in the Zimbabwe innings.

Surprisingly dropped down the batting order in both Twenty20 internationals and the first one-day game on Zimbabwe’s short tour, Taibu was promoted to number four on Sunday. He made his runs off 90 balls. He hit four fours and a six and kept the score moving with deft placements and quick running between wickets.

Zimbabwe openers Brendan Taylor and Chamu Chibhabha put on 59 for the first wicket before Theron took two wickets in his first over and Wayne Parnell took another in the next over as the visitors slipped to 60 for three.

The third and final match of the series is in Benoni tomorrow. Sports reporter

Harare, October 15, 2010 – Ten years after the 2 000 Soccer African Cup of Nations hosting was controversially taken away from Zimbabwe, the country is trying its third time luck by bidding to hold the 2014 tournament.

The host is announced four years in advance in order to give it time to upgrade its facfilities.

Zimbabwe Football Association president Cuthbert Dube revealed that Zimbabwe had submitted its application to host the 2014 tournament after failing to get it in 2 000 and 2006.

Coincidentally Dube was the Zimbabwe Football Associan’s treasurer when the 2000

tournament was taken away from Zimbabwe.

The right to host the 2000 Nations Cup was snatched away the last minute from Zimbabwe because the country’s facilities did not meet the required standard. In 2006 the country lost 10 to three votes to Tunisia to host the Cup.

A 13 member Confederation of African Football (Caf) executive will assess the merits and demerits of each canbdidate before the start of the next edition of the Nations Cup which will be co hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon in 2012.

Among some of the countries who are said to be in the race to host the 2014 tournament are Botswana, Mali, Morocco, and Cameroon. Between now and the Caf Congress where hosts of the tournament will be chosen, inspection visits will be made to the countries in question to find out whether they have the capacity to host the 16 team football extravaganza.

Caf requires four separate venues from different cities and Dube said Zimbabwe had submitted Rufaro Stadium, Barbourfiels Stadium, Mucheke and Sakubva with the

National Sports Stadium pencilled for the opening ceremony and the final.

When asked about Zimbabwe’s chances of success this time around, Dube said there were people in Caf who syphathised with Zimbabwe and Zifa was banking on their support.

The Zifa supremo said they had looked at both the 2000 and 2006 bidding documents and Zifa had improved on them to boost the country’s chances of bringing the tournament back.