Zimbabwe fail to fire and fall to fifth defeat of tour

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Once again Zimbabwe’s batsmen failed to give their in-form bowlers enough to bowl at after their captain Hamilton Masakadza won the toss and elected to make first use of a good batting surface.

Masakadza himself started well enough, hitting two sixes and a brace of fours in a 16-ball 21. Though his partner Solomon Mire lasted just three balls, No.3 Brendan Taylor contributed 29 before Sean Williams managed 41 off 28 balls. But no other Zimbabwe batsmen really got going, and certainly not with enough proficiency in attack.

The story was adequately told by some of the South African bowling figures. Andile Phehlukwayo went for just 15 off his four overs, but the groundwork was laid by Dane Paterson, who took 2/22 and Robbie Frylinck's 2/20. Their regular breakthroughs killed any chance the tourists had of building momentum, and 132/7 off 20 was an underwhelming total in conditions conducive to quick scoring where second-half dew was likely to suit the team batting second.

So it proved. No one South Africa batsman dominated but all were able to score at better than a run a ball, with Zimbabwe strike bowler Kyle Jarvis taking fearful tap off his two overs in particular. Rassie van der Dussen (13) hit the last ball of his first over for six, with Faf du Plessis (12) and Quinton de Kock (26) monstering the paceman's next over, when he returned to bowl the sixth of the innings. They hit a six and three fours between them to take the Proteas to 51/1 from the Powerplay, at which point they were well on course for victory.

Though Sean Williams will be pleased to have backed up his runs by picking up the wickets of du Plessis and Heinrich Klaasen (who smashed two sixes in his 15-ball 22) when the pressure had already come off the batsmen, South Africa made their total with 5.2 overs remaining. JP Duminy was untroubled to end unbeaten on 33 having hit the winning boundary, with David Miller his partner finishing on 19.

It is the continuation of the same sorry story for Zimbabwe, who are without a win on this tour. They’ll be searching for a consolation victory in the final T20 on Sunday.