South Africa racked up a monstrous 399 for 6 in the third ODI, Jean-Paul Duminy and AB de Villiers both racing to centuries in the course of a record-breaking 219-run stand for the 3rd wicket as the runs flowed without cease.
The cracks in Zimbabwe's brittle attack had been in evidence on the unforgiving tracks encountered in Bloemfontein and Potchefstroom, but the visitors' bowlers finally crumbled completely in Benoni,
Duminy and de Villiers' partnership lasted 31.4 overs at just under seven-an-over as they shared 11 fours and seven sixes, with no bowler spared, before a tiring de Villiers finally departed for a 99-ball 109.
Duminy added three further boundaries and had raced to 129, his highest score in ODIs, before he left the field with the score well past 300. Together they had surpassed the previous South African record for the 3rd wicket, de Villiers and Zimbabwe also having been involved in the previous effort, and was also the third highest overall for South Africa in one-dayers.
Any hope that humid conditions at the start and patches of green on the wicket might assist the seamers soon evaporated as Ian Nicolson - in just his second match in national colours - came in for some fearful punishment from South Africa's batsmen, his first two overs being spanked for 32.
The treatment of his new-ball partner Shingi Masakadza was not nearly as harsh, but captain Elton Chigumbura was still forced to turn to spin as early as the sixth over.
The change brought immediate results, Prosper Utseya luring Graeme Smith out of his crease with a wonderfully flighted offspinner and Hashim Amla suffering his first failure of the series as a lifter on off stump from Masakadza found a thin edge, and South Africa were pegged back to 59 for 2 after an electric start.
Zimbabwe were visibly lifted by the breakthroughs, but Duminy and de Villiers soon wrested the initiative back for South Africa as they took up the offensive with great vim and vigour. Nicolson's return to the attack was greeted with a volley of rifling strikes through the off side, and Graeme Cremer's third over was spanked for 18 as the batsmen matched each other shot for shot in a race to fifty.
Duminy got there first - from his 53rd ball - but de Villiers' half-century took just one delivery longer and as their partnership developed, the chance of a gettable total for the Zimbabweans began to evaporate. In a display of imperious, almost bored power-hitting, no bowler was spared.
Hamilton Masakadza, the eighth bowler tried by a desperate Chigumbura, finally brought an end to the torment as de Villiers set himself to thrash a sixth six but a skewed top edge landed safely in the hands of the younger Masakadza, running in from the deep midwicket boundary. Duminy departed soon after, but the left-handed trio of Albie Morkel, David Miller and Colin Ingram prolonged the assault.
Morkel re-discovered his big-hitting form with an uncompromising 37 from 21 balls, and Ingram crunched 20 from just seven deliveries before he sliced Chigumbura to backward point, where Cremer ultimately held a juggled chance. Miller took the score to the brink of 400 with a boundary from the final ball to finish unbeaten on 33, and it will take a stupendous - not to mention record-breaking - effort from Zimbabwe to even get close to this target
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