Cashing in on the substandard nature of the Zimbabwean attack yet again, Hashim Amla racked up his second century in as many days to power South Africa the bulk of the way to an eight-wicket win and two-nil series triumph in Potchefstroom before fellow centurion AB de Villiers finished the job.

With de Villiers along for the ride across their whirlwind 139-run partnership for the second wicket, Amla offered Test match-esque cover drives and grass-bound whips through midwicket to show his captain, Graeme Smith (40), that there was no need to force the aerial route.

Smith, not for the first time this series, had earlier wasted another good start in opting to go down the ground on the up successfully.

Loving life as ODI Player of the Year and on Sunday pushed up the order at the command of the team's brains trust, de Villiers took to the languid attack from the get-go to reach his half-century from just 37 balls. All the while, the adamant Amla had his eyes fixed on another three-figure contribution to his beloved country's cause and duly got there off a mere 97 balls.

Eventually succumbing to a lazy prod to mid-on for 110, the humble opener headed for the pavilion knowing full well that his fifth ODI century had all but sealed the deal for the Proteas.

De Villiers (101 not out), with JP Duminy (15 not out) by his side, laid to waste any bowler set before him across five telling boundaries and five savage sixes and soon had an eighth ODI century in powering the hosts to victory with a whopping 11 overs to spare.

Earlier, Man of the Match Rusty Theron's superb line and length and masterful slower deliveries accounted for a quintet of Zimbabwean scalps as the seamer bagged his maiden ODI five-for.

Whereas Lonwabo Tsotsobe appeared ring rusty at best and Wayne Parnell coughed up more of the inadequacy that continues to mar his return to the Proteas fold, right-armer Theron weighed in with key spells throughout the visitors' 268 all out.

59 without loss soon flopped to 155 for five as Theron's removal of dangerman Brendan Taylor for 32 and Sean Williams for a first-ball quacker across the 12th over of the innings kicked off the mini collapse. While Parnell failed to compound the pressure at the other end, Charl Langeveldt assured that the boundaries were kept at a minimum.

As long as half-centurion Tatenda Taibu was at the crease alongside old-timer Grant Flower (22) and youngster Craig Ervine (27), the tourists seemed set for a score in excess of 290 on a flat Senwes Park pitch near perfect for batting. However, with Flower undone by a rush of blood to the head in attempting to crank part-time spinner Duminy over the fence and Ervine unable to get on top of some testing elevation from Charl Langeveldt's probing length, the tourists had to rely all too much on Keith Dabengwa (28) and Prosper Utseya (22) to push them to an iffy total.

268 could have been all the more worse were it not for Taibu's resilience.

Promoted to four in the order rather than wasted at six or seven as in previous matches on this tour, the nuggety wicketkeeper-batsman coupled calculated hitting with jackrabbit-esque running between the wickets to make Elton Chigumbura's decision to bat first count for, at least, 268.

Ultimately dismissed by Langeveldt for 78 off the first ball of the Batting Powerplay, Taibu had to watch from the pavilion as the lower-order fondled rather than flourished their way through the five-over tactic.

Aptly so, it was the umpteenth slower ball of Theron's 8.2 overs that toppled tail-ender Graeme Cremer's off-stump to hand the Warriors star his five for 44. With competition amongst the seamers for a World Cup berth heating up, the fiery 25-year-old is fast becoming one of the better bets to partner Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel on the sub-continent come next year's limited-overs showpiece.

Across a couple of Twenty20 Internationals and two ODIs, South Africa have come up trumps in the batting department. Yet, on all four occasions, their fielding has let them down. Sunday's showing, though spared of dropped catches, hardly convinced in terms of ground fielding and finding the target. A string of misfields in the deep and a slew of failed attempts for the direct-hit fueled the rightful call that Smith's posse employ a full-time fielding coach soon.

Shot of the Day
One of two sixes in the Zimbabwean knock, Taibu's spank over long-on rightly upstaged Chibhabha's short-arm jab off Langeveldt over midwicket earlier. Picking Theron's tweak in length and roll of fingers across the seam early, the underrated right-hander whipped the slower ball over long-on with calm and precision.

Delivery of the Day
Having broken a 61-ball drought of boundaries the ball prior with four on the pull, Ervine fancied more of the same the very next delivery. Not to be though, as the wise, seasoned Langeveldt, surmising that the left-hander would be greedy for more in the face of a similar delivery, held back his length and pace oh so slightly to have the batsman hole out to mid-on.

Defining Moment of the Day
The decision to stick de Villiers well up the order certainly hastened the Proteas successful chase, but it hardly defined the forgone conclusion of the match. What arguably did though, was the visitors' selection blunders. Hamilton Masakadza's omission from the top of the order offered an even more frail look to the already-fragile batting ranks, while seamer Chris Mpofu's exclusion in favour of another batsman only succeeded in asking more from the slow bowlers, who had no answer whatsoever to Amla and de Villiers' collective onslaught.

Jonhenry Wilson