Namibia Were 76 for 6 Chasing 196, Then Added 110 in 46 Balls, and Still Lost by Five

Namibia won the toss and bowled, which on the evidence of the first two matches of this tri-series was the correct decision: both had been won by the chasing side, and the Namibia Cricket Ground had produced nothing above 163. Zimbabwe then made 195 for 6, the highest total of the tournament by more than thirty runs, and the surface stopped being the story.

They did it in two distinct halves. Ben Curran and Brian Bennett put on 64 in under six overs — Bennett's 32 from 21 contained six fours, Curran's 38 from 22 two fours and two sixes — and then Zimbabwe lost five wickets for 37 runs in the space of six overs. Dion Myers bowled by Bernard Scholtz. Sikandar Raza, the captain, caught by Frylinck off Gerhard Erasmus first ball. Curran caught by Jack Brassell off Max Heingo. Wessly Madhevere and Tadiwanashe Marumani both to Erasmus. At 101 for 6 in the twelfth over, Zimbabwe were heading for about 150 and Namibia were in control.

Ryan Burl and Brad Evans then added 94 unbeaten from 48 balls for the seventh wicket. Burl reached fifty from 29 and finished 57 not out from 32 with seven fours; Evans made 37 not out from 24. Zimbabwe's last eight overs produced 94 runs without loss, and Gerhard Erasmus, whose three wickets had all come between the eighth over and the twelfth, was hit for enough at the death to finish with 4-0-46-3.

Namibia's chase of 196 was over, by any reasonable reading, in the eleventh over. They lost Louren Steenkamp in the third, Erasmus in the fifth, and were 34 for 2 at the end of a powerplay in which Zimbabwe's seamers gave them nothing. Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton made a bright 20 from 13 and was lbw to Brian Bennett, who then had JJ Smit caught by Burl two balls later — a one-over spell of 1-0-8-2 that is the quiet, unglamorous performance of the night.

Jan Frylinck's 22 from 29 was the innings that hurt Namibia most: an anchor role that made sense in a chase of 150 and made none at all in a chase of 196. He was caught by Curran off Wellington Masakadza in the eleventh, and Ruben Trumpelmann followed in the twelfth. Namibia were 76 for 6, needing 120 from 53 balls, with a wicketkeeper and an allrounder at the crease.

What Zane Green and Alexander Busing-Volschenk then did was the sort of partnership that gets remembered regardless of the result. Fifty came from 30 balls. Green reached his own fifty from 25, seven fours and two sixes, and it is worth pausing on that shot selection — seven fours from a man who needed sixes tells you he was scoring almost entirely through timing and gaps rather than power. Busing-Volschenk went the other way: 56 from 29 with four sixes.

The hundred stand came up in 46 balls. Namibia went from 100 in 13.4 overs to 150 in 17.2, and they went into the final over with both set batters in, single figures a boundary away, and a slow-over-rate penalty forcing Zimbabwe to keep an extra fielder inside the circle.

Then it ended, and it ended fast. Second ball of the over: Green run out by Sikandar Raza for 54, with the score on 186, going for the sort of second run that only makes sense when you are trying to keep the strike. Fourth ball: Busing-Volschenk caught behind by Marumani off Brad Evans for 56. Fifth ball: Bernard Scholtz run out by Evans without facing. Sixth ball: Jack Brassell bowled by Evans. Four wickets in the last over, three of them in the final three deliveries, and Namibia were all out for 190.

Evans finished 37 not out from 24 and 3 for 41 from four overs, and the Player of the Match award was straightforward. But the number that matters is that he bowled the twentieth over of a match Zimbabwe were losing and conceded four runs from it while taking two wickets and effecting a run-out. Single figures to defend, two set batters, an extra fielder in the ring against him because of his own side's over-rate. That is as difficult an over as a T20 death bowler gets asked to bowl.

Zimbabwe's selection also earned its keep. Wellington Masakadza, brought in for Graeme Cremer, took the wicket of Frylinck and went for 25 from two — expensive, but Cremer's two overs in the previous match had cost 32 without a wicket. And Bennett's single over of medium pace for eight and two wickets was the kind of use of a part-timer that only works when the captain is watching the game rather than the plan.

Three matches, three different winners of the day: Namibia beat South Africa, South Africa beat Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe beat Namibia. Zimbabwe take two points and face South Africa in Windhoek on Tuesday with the tournament genuinely open.

The ground itself has now been reappraised. After two matches nobody had passed 163 and 150 looked like a par score; on Monday the two sides made 385 runs between them across forty overs. Whether that was the surface drying out, the shorter boundaries square, or simply two batting units deciding to take it on, the sides playing on Tuesday will approach it differently from the way they did last week.

For Namibia the frustration is real and the reading should not be. They lost six wickets for 76 chasing a total thirty runs above anything this ground had produced, and then very nearly won anyway. Zane Green at seven and Busing-Volschenk at eight is a lower order most associate members would take to a World Cup.