A one-sided contest on the weekend to decide the finalists. A couple more games in what should be a great atmosphere before the final in six days. Hope to see you for that. For now, it's goodbye from me Ekanth, my co-commentator Sreshth Shah, and our scorer M Venkat Raghav.
Rassie van der Dussem, SA captain Overall improvements in all aspects. Seamers were great, spinners were a touch expensive but the death bowling was excellent. Rubin was excellent. Our ground fielding needs to improve. We're letting things slip in the middle overs with the ball. Can't fault the performance with bat. The thing for us this series is experimenting with the side, we'll look at the series as a 3-match series. We're 1-0 down vs NZ, looking to equal that and win the final. Been tough for the bowlers with the shorter boundaries. Love playing here, second time here, you can still hear the ground. Informed crowd.
Rubin Hermann, POTM Disappointed I couldn't finish the game off, but that's just being hyper-critical. I'm just trying to back my instincts, keep a clear head and see what happens from there. I've focused on playing balls as late as possible. There's a lot of batsmanship involved on these pitches with inconsistent bounce and pace. There's a shorter boundary. I played good cricket shots, that's as best I can explain the success.
Sikandar Raza, Zimbabwe captain At one point, I thought 160 was a decent total. But we just cannot catch a break. Chasing gets easier, but that's no excuse. We had a lot of dots (58 in total), need to improve. SA showed how to. Bat on ball would've gone. a long way. Gotta stay calmer. Even 20 more runs, and you never know. Spinners is an area of concern, leading with me. I would start with myself, that confidence would go a long way. Batting was better, hopefully we'll get it all together against NZ.
4:11pm South Africa through to the final along with New Zealand. They'll have a dress rehearsal in a couple of days. A clinical win for SA today. Zimbabwe started well with the ball, a couple of early wickets from Maposa. But Hermann and van der Dussen got low-risk options in the powerplay. They pounced on the spinners, who skidded the ball through but often missed their lines. Hermann's flat-batting fetched boundaries downtown and over the leg side. The skipper played second-fiddle and with the equation not daunting, Zimbabwe were out of the races well before the early finish.
Seven needed, Gwandu to bowl what could be the final over of the day
END OF OVER:17 | 9 Runs | SA: 138/3 (7 runs required from 18 balls, RR: 8.11, RRR: 2.33)
- Rassie van der Dussen52 (41b)
- Dewald Brevis7 (5b)
- Tinotenda Maposa4-0-38-2
- Richard Ngarava4-1-21-1