South Africa 185 for 7 (Pretorius 94, Brevis 41, Madhevere 3-20, Evans 2-33) beat Zimbabwe 142 (Raza 45, Fortuin 4-24, Jansen 3-21) by 43 runs

Zimbabwe, who finished a last-ball thriller against Namibia less than 24 hours before this match began, looked like a side that had not recovered. Their bowling, without the rested Blessing Muzarabani, especially lacked structure, and their fielding was lethargic. They dropped Pretorius on 57, which proved costly, even though it was not to blame for the final result.

The 43-run defeat has left Zimbabwe with a net run rate of -1.691, which could affect their chances of qualifying for the final. Zimbabwe have one match left to play, against Namibia on Thursday. South Africa also have a game to play, but have pulled away from the other two teams on the points table. Namibia will play both remaining games to complete the group stage.

Lefties but not the same

South Africa’s opening pair of Jordan and Pretorius offered a study in contrasts, especially in their scoring areas. Though both are left-hand batters, they find runs in different ways, with Jordan favouring the areas behind square while Pretorius being dominant between square leg and long-on.

Jordan scored 23 of his 28 runs behind square, including both his sixes. The first was a pull off Wessly Madhevere that went over deep square leg, and the second a loft over deep point off a full ball from Brad Evans. Contrastingly, Pretorius plundered the on side. With a wider stance at the crease and a strong bottom hand, Pretorius played the pull and slog sweep almost at will. All but one of the six fours Pretorius scored in the opening stand were through mid-on. In total, he scored 49 of his 94 runs in that area of the ground, including seven fours and a six.

Zimbabwe pull things back

South Africa almost doubled their score from the halfway mark, when they were 88 for 1, to the end of the 16th over, when they were 161 for 2, and were set for a score well above 200. But as has been the case throughout this series, the bowlers made a late comeback and the middle order struggled.

Zimbabwe had already started clawing back in the 16th over, when Dewald Brevis tried to clear long-off but found Raza. Connor Esterhuizen, batting a spot higher at No. 4 in Tony de Zorzi’s absence, hit Newman Nyamhuri to deep square leg, where Curran took the catch. Rubin Hermann picked out long-off, and Eathan Bosch copy-pasted to long-on as South Africa searched for the big finish.

Pretorius, who was on 82 when the 17th over started, was on 94 at the end of the 19th, when he shuffled across his stumps and was bowled by a full slower ball from Evans. Fortuin was run-out off the last ball of the innings, which meant South Africa lost six wickets for 31 runs in 29 balls.

No hundred but great hands

Though Pretorius was visibly disappointed to miss out on three figures, he did not let that distract him from his job in the field, and was kept busy early on. In the second over of Zimbabwe’s innings, with ten runs already scored off the first three balls, Curran still wanted to go big and tried to flick the fifth ball over short fine leg. Pretorius was stationed there, and took a simple catch.

Two overs later, Pretorius was at short third when Bennett top-edged a slightly shorter delivery from Fortuin. The ball did go over Pretorius’ head but he turned to follow it, stuck out his right hand, and held on to a stunner. Pretorius almost couldn’t believe his luck as he celebrated with both hands on his hips while Fortuin completed a double-wicket maiden.

Jansen tops the wicket charts

Burl’s wicket was the one that took Jansen to the top of the series’ wicket charts after he had earlier bowled Innocent Kaia with a pinpoint yorker. Jansen went one better when the ball after his reflexes got rid of Burl, he had Tadiwanashe Marumani given out lbw. The decision looked harsh on Marumani, who was camped on the back foot and missed an attempted flick. At first glance, the ball appeared to be going down leg, but with no review system in place, the umpire’s decision stood and Jansen had three.