HEADINGLEY. England, June 5: Zimbabwe’s Neil Johnson Is a World Cup one-off - a player who opens noth batting and bowling, reports AFP.

The only man who gets close is Jacques Kallis, who opens the bowling for South Africa and bats at three or four.

The fact that Johnson is not doing it for his first-choice side is a disappointment which he has buried with his past.

If the 29-year-old allrounder - who lines up for Zimbabwe against New Zealand in their Super Six clash here on Sunday - had any lingering re-grets. he dismissed them in perfect fashion against South Africa at Chelmsford on May 29.

Playing against many of his old team-mate and friends, he took three wickets with his right-arm swing bowling and scored 76 runs to win the game for Zimbabwe.

"It was the greatest day of my cricketing Career. I hope they think they lost someone who could have played for them." he said of the South Africans. "But they could never admit it."

Johnson was born In Harare but has played most of his cricket in Natal in South

Africa. He also toured Zimbabwe with South Africa A in 1994-95.

"I grew up with Pollock and Klusener and I've known Jonty Rhodes the longest," he said.

The call to play alongside them for the Proteas, however, never came.

Last year, Johnson was awarded Zimbabwean citizenship and made an immmediate impact for his adoptive country.

First he took four wickets on his Test debut, including the highly-valued scalp of India's Sachin Tendulkar.

Then in his second Test, he made a 107-ball hundred in Pakistan that formed the cornerstone of Zimbabwe's first ever Test series win.

He has also been a building block for the team's success here.

He has not looked back since scoring 59 and taking four for 42 in his first game against Kenya.

After the first round, he had 10 wickets at 16.90 apiece, his economy rate 4.3 runs an over. That put him 11th in the bowling averages. His 156 runs at an average of 31.20 make him the tournament's 27th most suc-cessful batsman.

He will be aware, however, that his one international setback in his short international career came against Sunday's opponents.

Bowling the final over of the match, at the mini World Cup in Dhaka last October. Johnson conceded 15 runs as Chris Harris snatched victory with a boundary off the final ball. "Harris hits me over extra cover for four to win it," he recalls.

With history beckoning for Zimbawe as they attempt to reach the World Cup semi-finals for the first time, he will be determined not to allow that one lapse to re-occur. '