South Africa lifted the Namibia T20I tri-series trophy after defeating Zimbabwe by 48 runs in the final. It marked their third victory over the Chevrons in eight days. They had a poor start to the tournament, losing the opening game against Namibia, but since then, the Bjorn Fortuin-led side dominated the proceedings and the final was no different.
Batting first, the Proteas posted 205 runs. They missed the service of Lhuan-dre Pretorius, who is currently suffering from a groin injury, but that didn’t change South Africa’s intent. Connor Esterhuizen and Jordan Hermann supplied the platform with an 84-run opening stand. Jordan, in particular, grabbed the attention, having scored a 24-ball half-century. Esterhuizen, in the meantime, played the perfect role of a second fiddle, scoring 32 runs off 23 balls.
Jordan eventually scored 53 runs off 29 balls. However, his knock was enough to set the tone of the match. Later in the innings, Dewald Brevis contributed 32, while Rubin Hermann played an excellent cameo of 27 runs. Duan Jansen managed to keep the scoreboard ticking with an unbeaten knock of 23 runs off 14 balls.
Zimbabwe bowlers overall had a difficult night. Blessing Muzarabani managed to calm things down, having conceded only 25 runs off his four overs, but the pacer failed to clinch any wicket. Newman Nyamhuri and Brad Evans picked up two wickets each.
Zimbabwe struggle while chasing
The chase quickly turned into a one-sided affair. Zimbabwe fell to 25 for four in the fourth over and were six wickets down for 57 in the ninth. Their late recovery came through Evans and Kundai Matigumu, who shared 52 for the ninth wicket.
Evans eventually remained unbeaten on 56. It is his highest score in the format. The all-rounder also claimed 10 wickets in the series. His effort, however, could not prevent Zimbabwe from falling short.
South Africa’s bowlers were too hot to handle on the night of the final. The pace attack shared the workload, with Eathan Bosch, Duan Jansen, Bjorn Fortuin, Prenelan Subrayen and Kwena Maphaka among the wicket-takers. Jansen finished the series as the leading wicket-taker with 11 dismissals, moving ahead of Evans and Fortuin, who both ended on 10.
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