A mismatched finale: South Africa take no joy from winning tri-series
Telford Vice
Namibia T20I series 2026
People who take umbrage at teams being referred to as minnows won’t want to talk about the men’s T20I series final at the Namibia Cricket Ground in Windhoek on Sunday. Plainly, Zimbabwe did not belong on the same field as South Africa.
Both are bona fide cricket countries where passion for the game runs deep. Both have pulled off famous victories over teams who should have beaten them. Both have players who could earn their keep in several national XIs around the world. Both are full members of the ICC.
None of which elevates Zimbabwe out of minnowhood. They are as separate from as they are unequal to teams like South Africa.
South Africa, fuelled by Jordan Hermann’s 29-ball 53
South Africa, fuelled by Jordan Hermann’s 29-ball 53 and smaller chunks of runs up and down the order, made 205/5. They dismissed Zimbabwe for 157 in 18 with Duan Jansen and Bjorn Fortuin taking three wickets each. That might sound like a decent contest. It was anything but.
A lively crowd would have known they could be in for an uncompetitive afternoon even before the match started. When South Africa made 67 without loss in their powerplay, that possibility swelled. It was confirmed when Zimbabwe crashed to 46/4 in their first six overs. They were 81/8 midway through the 12th, by which time all concerned knew what would happen.
That included the South Africans on the field. Cricketers have a duty to try and take seriously the rest of a match they have already won. But, as with dead rubbers, this pretence is often revealed for the farce it is.
On Sunday that took the shape
On Sunday that took the shape of the South Africans losing focus and the Zimbabweans lashing out lustily to score runs that were never going to matter. Brad Evans would have known when he walked out to bat in the ninth with his team reduced to 57/5 and facing a required run-rate of 13.19. With nothing to win and everything lost, he knew he had license to swing. And he took it.
Evans’ unbeaten 56 off 31 — his first T20I half-century — airbrushed the size of Zimbabwe’s hiding but not its scale.
That much was obvious in the crestfallen stoop that Sikandar Raza, a man as proud of his players as he is unable to hide his disappointment, dragged to his interview with the host broadcaster.
It’s been good to be here and play
“It’s been good to be here and play some good cricket,” Raza said.“The only downside is I felt we took two steps forward and a step back, and that’s really hurtful.
“I think we missed out on [ticking] a lot of boxes.South Africa showed us how to bowl on that pitch. When we assessed it we thought it would play like that, and you cannot tell me it got better. We didn’t bowl as well as we should have.
“To top it off, when we came out to bat we just didn’t capitalise. We didn’t give ourselves a chance to do the right things. We got ourselves on the back foot and we lost the game.”
The interviewer did the done thing and tried
The interviewer did the done thing and tried to find positives where there were none that mattered. Evans’ batting, for instance.
“Our tail has been scoring a lot of runs,” Raza said. “You can take heart from that but that doesn’t mean the top order or the middle order don’t [need to] do their jobs.Imagine if we can set the platform for those guys, then they could surely win us the game.Unfortunately we haven’t done that. [The lower order] keep scoring all those valuable runs that take us to respectable totals, but that’s not good enough.”
Raza gets it. Because Zimbabwe beat Australia and Sri Lanka in Colombo in February in their plucky T20 World Cup campaign doesn’t mean they are no longer minnows. That they lost to West Indies, India and South Africa in the same tournament is no disgrace, but it does confirm that they remain among the small fry.
Conversely, because South Africa shambled to defeats against
Conversely, because South Africa shambled to defeats against the Netherlands at the 2022 T20I World Cup and the 2023 ODI version does nothing to change their respective statures. Those are their only successes in the 10 completed internationals the Dutch have played against South Africa.
Minnows can and do beat the mighty on occasion. Until they do so consistently they remain minnows. As do Namibia despite winning their first two T20Is against South Africa — in October last year and on August 28. That’s why those victories will be celebrated in Windhoek for decades to come.
So the South Africans seemed almost embarrassed to be received as champions on Sunday. When Bjorn Fortuin politely held up the trophy amid his players — a moment that, after a proper contest, invariably produces the thrusting of the spoils into the sky and brings forth wild yawps of joy from the victors — fists were held half-cocked and limply in the air for the benefit of the cameras. There was no sound at all, nevermind yawping.
The wooden trophy tumbled to earth
Then the wooden trophy tumbled to earth. It was an accident; no disrespect was intended. The South Africans side-eyed their surroundings nervously, hoping no-one would notice, and immediately scooped their prize off the turf.
Nice try, boys, but we saw that. You were more exercised about dropping a chunk of wood than you were about beating Zimbabwe. As you should have been. Because winning against minnows isn’t something to be endured, not celebrated.
Namibia T20I Tri-Series 2026
Namibia T20I Tri-Series 2026, Final
Zimbabwe
South Africa
Jordan Hermann
Bjorn Fortuin
Source: www.cricbuzz.com
