Namibia were 119 without loss chasing 229, and they still handed Zimbabwe the final

Namibia needed to beat South Africa in Windhoek on Friday to reach the final of their own tri-series. After 10.5 overs of the chase they were 119 without loss and the required rate was 12. They finished on 217 for 3 and lost by 11 runs, and Zimbabwe, who were not at the ground, are in Sunday’s final instead.

The hard part had already been done twice over. Louren Steenkamp and Jan Frylinck put on 119 for the first wicket against a target of 229, which is the sort of start that wins a T20 more often than not. Frylinck’s 72 came off 36 balls with six fours and five sixes. When he was caught off Andile Simelane in the eleventh over the game was still very much Namibia’s.

The injury that changed it

Steenkamp reached 61 off 44 and then retired hurt at the end of the sixteenth over with the score on 167 for 1. Namibia needed 62 from 24 at that moment, which is hard but not absurd on an afternoon where nothing else had troubled either set of batters.

What followed was 50 runs in those 24 balls, and that was not enough. Gerhard Erasmus stayed to the end for 30 off 26, a strike rate of 115 in a passage that needed something closer to 250. JJ Smit hit a six and was caught by Dewald Brevis in the eighteenth over. Ruben Trumpelmann’s 21 off 10 was the closest anyone came to the required tempo, and he was caught behind off the final ball of the innings.

Nqobani Mokoena took both of those wickets and finished with 2 for 43. Simelane’s 1 for 28 was the only other one South Africa managed. Namibia lost three wickets all evening, gave up nothing in the field, and were still short. Twenty-four of their runs were extras, 13 of them wides, which makes the margin harder to look at rather than easier.

Pretorius finally got the hundred

Three days earlier Lhuan-dre Pretorius made 94 against Zimbabwe and did not get there. On Friday he did, reaching a maiden T20I century off 52 balls and finishing on 101 from 53 with five fours and eight sixes before Erasmus bowled him with two balls of the innings left.

He was not even the fastest scorer in the partnership. Connor Esterhuizen made 88 off 40 with six fours and eight sixes, and the two of them put on 156 for the first wicket in a shade over 11 overs. South Africa reached 100 in 8.2 overs. Nobody else in the order needed to do much, and nobody else did: Brevis made 3, Rubin Hermann 26, and the innings closed on 228 for 4.

Jan Balt was the pick of Namibia’s bowlers with 2 for 31 from his four overs, which on a night when Jack Brassell went at 19.5 an over counts as a real performance.

Zimbabwe get in without playing

Namibia opened this tri-series by beating South Africa by 18 runs on 28 August. They then lost to Zimbabwe twice and to South Africa once, and finish the round robin bottom on two points. South Africa top the table on six. Zimbabwe, who completed their four matches on 3 September and could only watch, take the other final place on four.

South Africa and Zimbabwe meet at the Namibia Cricket Ground on Sunday. Namibia’s consolation is that they are not finished in Windhoek: a three-match ODI series against South Africa follows on 9, 11 and 13 September.

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