Lhuan-dre Pretorius fires with the bat as Proteas crush Zimbabwe in T20I tri-series

The victory lifts the Proteas into first place in the tournament after bouncing back from a opening day defeat to hosts Namibia with two comfortable wins against Zimbabwe.

After opting to bat first at the toss, Pretorius and opening partner Jordan Hermann gave the Proteas a quick start with the willow, putting on 59 in the powerplay.

Hermann was the first to fall for a 25-ball 28, the left-handed batter slicing off-spinner Wessly Madhevere (3-20) straight in the hands of backward point.

Dewald Brevis walked to the crease in hot form having a made 75 in both previous encounters and immediately looked at ease as he made his way to 41 from 27 balls.

Brevis and Pretorius put on on stand of 86 for the second-wicket as the Proteas looked well on course to be the first team to breach the 200-run mark in the tournament.

Zimbabwe seamer Brad Evans (2-33) made the breakthrough, removing the dangerous Brevis and the Proteas then suffered a mini-collapse as they lost their next six wickets for 31 runs to finish with a total of 185-7.

Zimbabwe's run-chase got off to a disastrous start as they slipped to 54-7 with Fortuin (4-24) at the forefront of the collapse, while lanky seamer Duan Jansen continued to make a good impression with 3-21.

Captain Sikandar Raza showed some resistance with 45 while some lower-order boundaries from Newman Nyamhuri (27) meant Zimbabwe got up to a total of 142 all out.

The next game in the T20I tri-series will be on Thursday when hosts Namibia take on Zimbabwe in a crucial clash in Windhoek.

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