It began with Dewald Brevis and ended with Lhuan-dre Pretorius as South Africa ensured Namibia did not pull off a hat-trick of wins against them. Along the way, South Africa also began to unveil the future of their white-ball plans.
That Brevis will be the lynchpin of their batting has been suspected since he topped the runs chart at the 2022 Under-19 World Cup. It has been four and a half years since that tournament, Brevis has made his senior international debut across all formats, and has played in six T20 leagues around the world. His twin 75s at the start of the series showed his ability to pace a chase - albeit the rest of the line-up couldn't finish the job in match one - and the best use of his skills seems to be at No. 3 or 4, not lower.
Now South Africa also know that should Quinton de Kock's un-retirement prove to be short-lived*, they don't need to panic. There's a mini-me in Pretorius, a left-hand opening batter who keeps wicket and has no fear. Pretorius also appears to be the ultimate team man, for whom milestones only matter if they contribute to a win. When everyone wondered whether being dismissed for 94 earlier this week frustrated him, he made it plain that it didn't, then responded by scoring a hundred on Friday, and he still didn't seem to want to talk about it too much.
"I feel pretty good. We got the victory and that's all we needed to get to Sunday [the tri-series final]," he said at the post-match presentation. "For the hundred, Connor [Esterhuizen] made it a lot easier for me at the start and when he lost his wicket, I could just take charge as the leader in the middle and then try to capitalise where I could. Fortunately it worked out."
Esterhuizen, who was promoted to open the batting and scored 88, kept more of the strike early on and scored more of the runs. In the first five overs, Esterhuizen faced 20 balls to Pretorius' ten and scored 39 runs to Pretorius' 12 as Pretorius continued to follow Heinrich Klaasen's advice and give himself a little bit of time to get in. While Pretorius credited Esterhuizen for taking pressure off him, Esterhuizen passed it straight back and said Pretorius helped calm him down.
"When batting out there with Lhu, he's super laser-focused and always looking to get at the opposition," Esterhuizen said. "I can sometimes be a bit of a nervous wreck out there, so I'm just looking for jokes or some banter and some laughs. We feed off each other very nicely."
It's little wonder that stand-in captain Bjorn Fortuin singled the pair out in his post-game assessment. "They batted beautifully. They summed up conditions fairly quickly. Once they set a platform for themselves, we just saw their natural talent come through," Fortuin said. "We've been seeing it from the entire camp and Connor played a nice knock today as well, so I'm very happy for them."
That South Africa have players with the raw talent to do amazing things has never been in doubt. Through continued exposure at the highest level, they are now creating opportunities for those players to consistently show off that skill and they will hope the final is another of those.
Zimbabwe are the opposition and South Africa have outplayed them in both round-robin matches in this competition. Crucially, while South Africa have batters occupying the top two positions on this series' runs chart, Zimbabwe's top run-scorer, Brian Bennett, is a No. 6 and he only has 101 runs from four innings. For Zimbabwe to compete in the trophy match, they will have to bat better than they have done through this series, by a distance, and they will rely heavily on their bowlers, who are their stronger suit.
Brad Evans is the joint-leading wicket-taker with Duan Jansen, and though Blessing Muzarabani has not had the best series, he is an ever-present threat. By comparison, South Africa's seamers are much less experienced and learning on the job. On Friday, they learnt some of their most valuable lessons.
Against a batting line-up that threw everything at them, Kwena Maphaka, Eathan Bosch, Nqobani Mokoena and Nqaba Peter held their nerve. "I asked them to bowl hard overs, I asked them to bowl to tough plans and they stood up," Fortuin said. "We knew today was going to be a massive challenge against a good team that had a lot to play for, so it's nice to get one over them."
Fortuin will also have a crucial role to play, as the player with the second-best economy rate of any bowler who bowled at least 24 balls in the competition, and as the leader of a young South African side. The expectation will be that, even though they are not at full strength, they will beat Zimbabwe but Sikandar Raza and Co have a lot to prove. Reaching the final was a minimum for them, and they will be keen to explore what going beyond that could look like.
*De Kock did not return to the place he made his international comeback in just under a year ago, Namibia, and is currently at the CPL. He could well be in South Africa's 2027 ODI World Cup plans but there has been no confirmation of his long-term availability and he is not centrally contracted.
