As the first game of this Tri-Series is officially over, it was a very exciting matchup with Zimbabwe playing South Africa for the first time in over three years for T20Is. With South Africa coming out victorious by five wickets, this seemed like a pretty evenly matched game until the final couple of overs.
Despite the Proteas using their second and third units during this matchup, they showed up during crunch time and were once again able to beat Zimbabwe for a 7th straight time in T20 internationals, dating back to 2009. Seeing that captain Rassie Van der Dussen was at the helm, he built a lot of confidence amongst his young players, which helped them learn about how to fight out of crucial situations when they play against bigger teams.
Since this was just the first time these two teams met in the Tri-Series, they will meet again later on down the road for a potential finals appearance. Looking directly at Zimbabwe, this was a tough start to their first series with three different nations since 2014, and there were both positives plus negatives they took out of the match.
As this unit tried their very best during the match, they will have New Zealand up next and hope to create some noise against them for a chance to show that their back. Captain Sikandar Raza will still remain with his great spirit and leadership, while also hoping to mentor all these newer pieces to his squad. With both sides’ second match still a few days ahead of us, it is first important to discuss the important pieces of this opening match.
The Chevrons’ Top-Order Made It Competitive
As Zimbabwe put up a very formidable 141/6 against one of the best bowling attacks, there were several batsmen near the beginning who became game-changers. One such was Brian Bennett, after he finished with a 30-run knock and created boundaries pretty easily in the early overs. His class was shown early on as the opener, sticking in there despite losing Clive Mandale and Wessley Madhevere near or post-powerplay time. But, most of the credit once again goes to Sikandar Raza as he yet again picked up another half-century against a top-playing nation and did it with a variety of shots. As he launched two massive sixes, Raza showed aggressiveness in running between the stumps as well.
Remaining not out, he ended up with 54 runs and created a 66-run partnership alongside Ryan Burl. What was great about them two batting at the same time was the lefty-righty combination, where they would continue confusing bowlers on what angle their shots would go. Helping the score go all the way to 121 before Burl got out, he was able to hit 29 runs in quick time because of an intent to go big on nearly every ball.
The last batsman who made a pretty massive impact towards the end was Tashinga Musekiwa after finishing out with a four during the last over before his wicket with just 4 deliveries left in this match. Seeing this, without their second to fifth batsmen on this Zimbabwe unit today, they would be in a world of trouble.
Allowing Tons of Lower Runs Per Over
Although Zimbabwe’s batting unit did a solid job towards the end, the reason they weren’t able to make their score higher was because of South Africa’s top-notch bowling attack. A group that really thrived during the power play, they forced Zimbabwe to score less than 39 runs during that period, and Lungi Ngidi was a major piece in that. Just giving up 15 runs in four overs, he had one massive maiden and created a nice lefty/right combination with Nandre Burger.
As Burger showed elite pace and control in front of the stumps, he had a massive wicket of Ryan Burl during this match as well. Lastly, George Linde really made an impact as a wicket-taker today after he picked up three wickets in his overs of bowling, including getting opener Brian Bennett out.
South Africa’s Middle-Order Plummets The Opposing Bowling Attack
On South Africa’s side, today was more of the middle-order story as they got off to a pretty nerve-wracking 38/3 start. Seeing both Reeza Hendricks, 11 runs, and Lhuan-Dre Pretorious go very early made it feel like they would be completely out of this match in a short time. Also, seeing that their captain got rid of within the powerplay, it was all up to Rubin Hermann plus Dewald Brevis to get this squad completely back. Despite both of them lacking experience at an international level for South Africa, today they looked like veteran pros and absolutely dismantled the Zimbabwe spinners and all-rounder pacers. Talking about Hermann, specifically, he played more of a controlled role by scoring 45 runs off 37 balls.
He was hitting some elegant shots and made sure to remain in for a while by seeming to play defensively many times. Someone who finished with 5 boundaries, his opposing partner in Dewald Brevis, played a completely opposite role. He was more of the aggressor who was hitting mammoth sixes and not even leaving one ball without striking it. Finishing with 41 runs, he just did it off 17 deliveries, and there were a couple of overs where Brevis was almost exclusively hitting sixes. Being a major factor in putting South Africa in a prime position to win this match, Corbin Bosch came in towards the end to finish the deal after hitting three classy boundaries during his 15 deliveries on strike.
Zimbabwe’s Spinners and Pacers Had Very Different Days
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s bowling attack was also pretty solid in the powerplay as they picked up three massive wickets then and allowed fewer than 40 runs. The biggest story in this unit was Richard Ngarava, as he picked up two wickets in the powerplay and also officially broke Sikandar Raza’s record.
Although Sikandar Raza went for an economy of 8 to 9 throughout his overs, he had caused South Africa to be in a world of trouble early on and almost got Dewald Brevis too. The other major pacer on this squad was Trevor Gwandu, who bowled at under 4.5 runs per over and also had two wickets to his name. Now talking about spinners, this was a game for them to forget after Wellington Maskadza allowed 21 runs in his two overs. When they tried to change things up by introducing Ryan Burl into the attack, the results remained very similar.
Also Read: ZIM vs SA : Wiaan Mulder Reflects On His Unbeaten 367 After Conversation With Brian Lara