Match overview
South Africa beat Zimbabwe by 328 runs in the Test match played at Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo, on 28 June 2025. South Africa Cricket won the toss, chose to bat, and posted 418/9 in their first innings. Zimbabwe replied with 251 all out. South Africa then declared their second innings on 369 all out, leaving Zimbabwe requiring 337 to win. The hosts were bowled out for 208, handing South Africa a comfortable victory. LG Pretorius took the player of the match award. The result extended South Africa's head-to-head record against Zimbabwe to 39 wins from 40 meetings.
PWA Mulder's 164 off 253 balls was the innings that defined the match. South Africa's first-innings total of 418/9 was almost double the ground's historical average of 212 across 46 Tests at this venue, and it gave their bowlers a platform they were never going to surrender. Zimbabwe's two innings of 251 and 208 were not insubstantial on paper, but they came in entirely different contexts: the first as a side already behind, the second as one needing 337 just to draw level.
Venue and conditions
Queens Sports Club has hosted 46 Tests since it became an international venue. The average first-innings score here is 212 and the average second-innings score is 186, which means South Africa's 418/9 sat far above historical norms. The ground does not typically produce high-scoring first-innings declarations, so any team capable of batting for extended periods can build a lead that becomes very difficult to overhaul.
The toss matters at this venue, though perhaps not decisively. Teams that choose to field win only 39 per cent of encounters here. The chase success rate is 38 per cent, which aligns with the general difficulty of fourth-innings batting on a surface that tends to deteriorate. South Africa's decision to bat first was straightforward given those numbers, and the pitch rewarded it across both of their innings.
How to watch
Test cricket involving South Africa is broadcast in the UK on Sky Sports Cricket. Subscribers can stream through Sky Go, and non-subscribers can access coverage via a NOW TV Sports membership. For ICC-sanctioned Test matches, BBC Radio's Test Match Special also provides long-form radio commentary, which remains popular with UK listeners who prefer to follow extended sessions without a television subscription.
Given the time difference between Zimbabwe and the UK, play at Bulawayo begins in the morning local time and falls into mid-morning UK hours, making it broadly accessible for fans who can follow the session live or pick up the highlights in the evening.
Recent form
South Africa arrived in Bulawayo with a mixed run of results in 2025: wins against Australia and England sat alongside losses to New Zealand (twice) and Pakistan. That record suggests they are competitive against the best teams in the world, even if not consistently so. Against Zimbabwe, however, form from other series is largely irrelevant given the weight of the head-to-head history.
Zimbabwe's 2025 schedule included losses to England and Bangladesh, a win against Bangladesh, a no-result against Ireland, and a win over Ireland. Their experience against the highest-ranked Test nations has been limited, and the step up to facing South Africa's bowling attack at a venue that favours patient batting exposed the gap in resources. Muzarabani remains their most potent wicket-taking option, having claimed 8 wickets across 38 overs in a Test match as recently as February 2025, but without consistent batting support, individual bowling efforts are unlikely to change outcomes against this South Africa side. The two teams are not scheduled to meet again immediately, so Zimbabwe's next challenge will be finding ways to compete more closely in their following Test series.