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Zim tour of South Africa confirmed

Sport
The Zimbabwe national cricket team will tour South Africa this year where they will play limited overs cricket to kick start the 2018-19 international season.

The Zimbabwe national cricket team will tour South Africa this year where they will play limited overs cricket to kick start the 2018-19 international season.

by Kevin Mapasure

Having toured South Africa for a Boxing Day Test last year, Zimbabwe will visit their neighbours between September and October.

Cricket South Africa yesterday confirmed the tour, which precedes the visits of Sri Lanka and Pakistan, with the latter set to play a Boxing Day Test with the hosts.

Zimbabwe failed to qualify for the International Cricket Council World Cup finals that will be staged in England next year, but South Africa will use this tour to start fine tuning themselves for the global showcase.

On the other hand Zimbabwe will be looking to continue with the quest of making themselves a better One Day International (ODI) cricket team.

The tour includes three ODIs and two Twenty20 (T20) Internationals. Only two of the four matches will be played during the day while the rest are day and night contests. Zimbabwe is rarely exposed to day and night cricket and this is an opportunity for them to horn their skill in such conditions.

Having fired their entire technical team, Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) is looking to have a new coaching set up in place by the end of the month ahead of the visits by both Pakistan and Australia this winter.

The three nations will play a T20 triangular series where each team will play four matches before the top two clash in the final.

After that Pakistan will remain in Zimbabwe for an ODI series, but there will be no Test cricket on this tour.

In South Africa Zimbabwe will play the first ODI against the hosts at the Diamond Oval in Kimberley on September 30, while the last two of that format are day and night matches in Bloemfontein and Paarl.

East London and Potchefstroom will host the T20 series.

South Africa tour schedule

ODI Series: September 30: 1st ODI, Diamond Oval, Kimberley (Day), October 3: 2nd ODI, Mangaung Oval, Bloemfontein (D/N), October 6: 3rd ODI, Boland Park, Paarl (D/N)

T-20 Series: October 9: 1st T20, Buffalo Park, East London (D/N), October 12: 2nd T20, Senwes Park, Potchefstroom (D/N), October 14: 3rd T20, Willowmoore Park, Potchefstroom (Day)