Namibia Beat South Africa in Windhoek, Then Brevis Made 75 off 32
The tri-series South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia are using to prepare for a World Cup they will co-host opened with the host nation winning by 18 runs.
Namibia beat South Africa by 18 runs in the opening match of the Twenty20 international tri-series in Windhoek, before South Africa answered the following day with a seven-wicket win over Zimbabwe.
Namibia's win
Namibia made 163 for 9 and dismissed South Africa for 145 for 9. JJ Smit took three for 33 and was named player of the match; Ruben Trumpelmann took three for 24. The total was built on a 60 from 38 balls and a 41 from 29.
Beating a full member is not new for Namibia, but doing it at home in a series they are hosting, in the format they will play at a World Cup they co-host, is a different kind of result from an upset at a qualifier.
South Africa's response
Against Zimbabwe the next day, South Africa chased 145 in 13.4 overs, winning by seven wickets. Dewald Brevis made 75 not out from 32 balls with six sixes and was player of the match.
A chase completed with more than six overs to spare says less about Zimbabwe's 144 for 8 than about what Brevis did to it. Zimbabwe's total was par for the ground on the evidence of the first match. It lasted 82 balls.
Why this series exists
It is billed as preparation for the 2027 World Cup, which South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia will co-host, and it has been discussed as a step toward a regular continental competition.
That framing matters for how the results should be read. A tri-series between three co-hosts eighteen months out is not primarily about who wins it. It is about Namibia and Zimbabwe getting repeated fixtures against a full member on their own grounds, which is the single thing associate and lower-ranked sides most consistently lack and the thing that most reliably closes a gap.
Namibia winning the first match of it is a better advertisement for the idea than anything a governing body could have written.
The rest of it
The round-robin runs to 4 September, with the final on 6 September between the top two. All matches are at the Namibia Cricket Ground in Windhoek.
Men's Twenty20 international cricket is the format our live match coverage serves, and where a fixture reaches us with a confirmed squad we publish a batting forecast for it. You can see what is currently published on our predictions page.