South Africa beat Zimbabwe by 43 runs to reach Windhoek tri-series final

South Africa are into the final of the T20I tri-series in Windhoek after beating Zimbabwe by 43 runs at the Namibia Cricket Ground on Tuesday. Lhuan-dre Pretorius made 94 from 51 balls. South Africa posted 185 for 7. Zimbabwe were bowled out for 142 in 17.2 overs, and the margin put the second final place beyond them with one group game still to be played.

Pretorius sets the tempo

The 20 year old left-hander struck 12 fours and three sixes. Brad Evans bowled him as he tried to flick to leg. He finished six short of a maiden T20I hundred. Before that he put on 68 for the first wicket with Jordan Hermann, who made 28, and 86 for the second with Dewald Brevis, who made 41 from 27 balls.

"I am just glad we won. Milestones can wait. At one stage I thought we would exceed 200 runs," Pretorius said.

South Africa never got there. Cricket Times reported that they lost six wickets for 31 runs in the closing stages. The total still held up comfortably.

Fortuin and Jansen close it out

Bjorn Fortuin took 4 for 24 while standing in as captain. Duan Jansen took 3 for 21, and Cricket Times put his tournament tally at eight wickets. Zimbabwe were 51 for 5 inside eight overs, according to the same report. The required rate was gone long before the wickets ran out.

Sikandar Raza made 45. He was the only substantial resistance. The innings closed with 16 balls unused.

The second final place

South Africa lost their opening match of the series to Namibia by 18 runs, so Tuesday was a correction as much as a qualification. Zimbabwe and Namibia are now level on two points each. Zimbabwe took theirs from a five run win over the hosts last week.

The two meet again on Thursday at 1200 GMT. The winner joins South Africa in Sunday's final. Nothing else in the group can change that.

• South Africa: qualified for Sunday's final
• Zimbabwe: two points, must beat Namibia on Thursday
• Namibia: two points, must beat Zimbabwe on Thursday

One ground, seven matches

Every fixture in this tri-series is being staged at the Namibia Cricket Ground. AFP described the venue as a 2027 ODI World Cup ground. South Africa will co-host that tournament with Zimbabwe and Namibia, and the ICC has confirmed the same three hosts in its own coverage this week.

Namibia Cricket is running the entire competition on a single square. Two Full Member squads are in the country for it. Sunday's final is the seventh and last scheduled game, which puts a full tournament load through one outfield in under a fortnight. Namibia will need to do the same at a larger scale in 2027.