The havoc and destruction that lay in heaps for Zimbabwe after the first Test against South Africa at Newlands, Cape Town left few words needing to be said. The extent of the weakened line-up was the focal point that led to only the eighteenth occasion when a Test match has ended under two days.

That South Africa would overcome Zimbabwe with little trouble was not in doubt. But the Test revealed gaping a hole the rebel situation had left for the minnows of cricket until Bangladesh took on that mantle recently. The gulf between the two teams was simply humungous and unfathomable for the young bunch of completely inexperienced bunch of players, most of whom have not even been exposed to cricket at the first class level.

Zimbabwe were soon dismissed for their lowest ever total of fifty-four in under thirty-two overs. While Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini picked three wickets apiece for their fine spell, an equal part of injudicious batting belied the lack of match preparedness. Mark Boucher became the third Test player to pick up 300 dismissals while Makhaya Ntini became only the third player from South Africa to pick up 200Test wickets. Graeme Smith must have been caught by surprise at how easy the opposition seemed after a gruelling tour to India and trial by fire against England.

South Africa surpassed Australia's run rate of 5.8 per over against them back in the season of 2002-'03. Their galloping rate at 6.8 to the over left Zimbabwe staring at 340 when play ended on day one. Not to be discounted was the century by Smith who flowed in tandem with AB de Villiers' fine effort only to miss out on a century by just two runs.

Jacques Kallis, deliberately rested for the one day internationals, showed that he was hungry as ever. His half-century broke the fences of the fastest fifty in a Test held for more than a couple of decades by Ian Botham. Botham achieved that feat off just twenty-six balls against India at Delhi back in 1981-'82. Jacques Kallis did it with two balls less with three boundaries and five magnificent sixes to boot. Graeme Cremer scalped all three wickets but that did little to console Zimbabwe's bleak situation.

The rather surprisingly overnight declaration by Graeme Smith meant that Zimbabwe took up their second innings with 286 runs still in arrears. Zimbabwe did well to lose only a couple of wickets in the first session before lunch. Dion Ebrahim and Hamilton Masakadza built on a commendable ninety-eight run partnership to thwart the South African effort. Dion Ebrahim scored a valiant seventy-two while Masakadza played well for his forty-six before cutting Nicky Boje to Herschelle Gibbs at backward point.

After the fall of Masakadza's wicket, Zimbabwe lost their nerve as Zimbabwe lost eight wickets for just 108 runs to be 265 all out.

The only defiant block seemed Andy Blignaut who returned to Zimbabwean colours before Streak but laid low by injury. He wrecked the stupendous bowling figures with a rather entertaining affair for sixty-one off just fifty-eight balls including six sixes. The over-zealousness finally got him as he danced down the pitch to be stumped without too much fuss by Boucher to give Boje his fourth wicket and South Africa, a rather facile victory by an innings and twenty-one runs.

The writing was pretty much on the wall. But the resultant outcome of the first outing that left three days for the South African team to play golf or find other suitable means to relax emphasized why former players such as Kepler Wessels were livid about the meagre preparation that the present series presented ahead of the tour to the West Indies.