Namibia defended 163 to beat South Africa by 18 runs in the Windhoek tri-series opener on Friday, and are now two from two against their neighbours in T20 internationals.
Dewald Brevis hit five sixes in Windhoek on Friday, made 75 from 50 balls, and lost by 18 runs. That is the short version. The longer one involves a 21-year-old seamer, an 18-year-old seamer, and a Namibia side that has now played South Africa twice in T20 internationals and won both.
Frylinck was dropped on 13 and finished on 60
South Africa won the toss and bowled. Jan Frylinck and Louren Steenkamp took 57 off the powerplay and 84 off the first nine and a bit overs, which is roughly the ideal way to start a T20 innings.
Frylinck should not have been there for most of it. On 13 he skied a Duan Jansen ball towards extra cover, Jordan Hermann had it covered, and then a team-mate crossed his eyeline at the wrong moment and the catch went down. He made 60 from 38 after that, with six fours and two sixes, reaching his fifty by hitting Brevis straight for six.
Steenkamp made 41 from 29 before Bjorn Fortuin, standing in as South Africa’s captain, bowled him. And then Namibia stopped.
Nine wickets for 79
From 116 for 1 they went to 133 for 5, losing four wickets for 17 runs in 22 balls with ten dots inside that sequence. Prenelan Subrayen did most of the damage, finishing with 3 for 32 after a final over that removed Zane Green lbw on the reverse sweep and knocked over JJ Smit’s middle stump with a yorker.
Namibia lost nine for 79 in the back half and closed on 163 for 9. Fortuin’s four overs cost 17. Every South African bowler took a wicket except Lutho Sipamla, who left the field hurt halfway through his second over with a left hamstring problem, and Jordan Hermann, who came on to finish that over and also went wicketless.
163 on that ground felt light. It was not.
Namibia handed the ball to the kids
Gerhard Erasmus bowled the first over himself, gave the second to Ruben Trumpelmann, and then turned to the young ones. Jack Brassell, 21, came on third and had Jordan Hermann caught at extra cover with a short ball inside his first three deliveries. His first two overs went for nine.
Trumpelmann had Lhuan-dre Pretorius caught on the pull. South Africa finished the powerplay 34 for 2, and Erasmus immediately brought on Max Heingo, who is 18. Heingo bowled Tony de Zorzi trying to heave across the line, and had 1 for 8 after two overs. Two seamers with 39 years between them had taken three of the top four, and South Africa were 39 for 3.
Brevis was on his own
Brevis was 19 off 20 at the start of the tenth, with the rate above ten. Then he went after Bernard Scholtz, Namibia’s leading T20I wicket-taker, and took 18 off his second over, including a no-look six and another over deep midwicket. He hit Heingo for back-to-back sixes to reach his fifty off 39 balls.
Nobody stayed with him. The next highest score in South Africa’s top six was Rubin Hermann’s 12. Only Duan Jansen, on T20I debut, offered anything at the other end with 25 not out.
Trumpelmann eventually got him. Four runs came off the first five balls of the over, Brevis tried to drag a full toss to leg, and outside-edged to short third where Brassell was standing in exactly the right place. South Africa needed 31 from two overs at that point. Erasmus bowled a penultimate over that cost three and got Fortuin, and Smit finished it with two wickets in two balls.
South Africa were not at full strength, and it still counts
This was not a first-choice South Africa side, and nobody in Namibia was pretending otherwise. It also does not change the scoreboard. Erasmus said afterwards that the result shows his team belong and that the previous win over South Africa was not a one-off.
What Namibia keep doing is producing seamers. Trumpelmann took 3 for 24, Smit took 3 for 31 and the match award, and the two young quicks gave up 56 runs between them in eight overs while taking the wickets that shaped the chase.
It is the first of seven matches in this tri-series, with Zimbabwe the third side. South Africa play them on Saturday, looking for their first points.
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