Jan Frylinck hammered an impressive half-century, while Ruben Trumpelmann and Gerhard Erasmus put on a clinic on bowling at the Namibia Cricket Ground to help the hosts secure an 18-run win over South Africa in their Namibia T20I Tri-Series match on Friday.
The visitors, who won the toss and elected to bowl first, struggled to contain Namibia's openers as the hosts charged to 163-9 in 20 overs.
South Africa struggled to get a foothold early on in the contest before making a late charge to reach 145-9 in their chase.
🚨 MATCH RESULT 🚨
— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) August 28, 2026
Despite a fighting innings from Dewald Brevis, #TheProteas fall short in the chase as Namibia secure an 18 run victory. 🇿🇦
A valiant effort from #TheProteas in the opening match of the T20I Tri-Series, but Namibia hold on to take the win. 🏏#Unbreakable pic.twitter.com/J4jqOd6ju7
Frylinck put Namibia on the front foot with a 38-ball 60 (6x4s, 2X6s).
This was his fourth T20I half-century and he faced 36 deliveries to reach the milestone. His entertaining knock was ended by Dewald Brevis's part-time leg spin.
The opener was going for a third consecutive six off Brevis's bowling, but was caught by Nqobani Mokoena in the deep.
Brevis countered Frylinck's half-century with one of his own.
Unfortunately, unlike Frylinck, Brevis did not have a partner complementing him at the other end.
The No 3 batter shared the crease with four different batters as he compiled his 75 runs off 50 balls (4x4s, 5x6s). This was his second T20I half-century.
Frylinck shared a fantastic 84-run opening partnership with Louren Steenekamp (41).
The 29-year-old complemented his partner's effort with 41 runs off 29 deliveries. The duo took advantage of South Africa's errant bowling.
The hosts lost wickets at regular intervals and struggled to maintain the momentum created by Frylinck and Steenkamp, but did enough to register a total beyond the visitors' reach.
SA FORCED TO TAKE RISKS
Namibia showed South Africa where they should have concentrated their deliveries in the visitors' chase.
They consistently landed the ball in good areas, thereby limiting South Africa to a single boundary in the first six overs.
The boundary drought compelled South Africa's openers to take risks, which led to their demise. Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Jordan Hermann lost their wickets trying to clear the ropes.
Brevis took it upon himself to dig the visitors out of the hole they found themselves in.
The 23-year-old entertained the crowd and kept South Africa believing that they could grab victory from the jaws of defeat.
But Brevis's stay at the crease was ended by Rubin Trumpelmann in the 18th over. He top-edged a full toss to the fielder at short third.
Duan Jansen, with whom Brevis shared a 47-run sixth-wicket partnership, was South Africa's next best batter with an unbeaten 25 runs from 17 balls.
Rubin Hermann was the only other South African batter to reach double figures.
Trumpelmann led the charge for Namibia and he finished the match with three wickets for 24 runs in four overs.
JJ Smit also claimed three scalps, but conceded 31 runs in his four overs.
Erasmus was the most economical bowler in the contest. He allowed seven runs off his two overs and also took a single wicket.
The victory lifts Namibia to the summit on the three-team table.
Meanwhile, South Africa have all to do in their remaining three group matches. They will be hoping to turn things around when they go up against Zimbabwe on Saturday afternoon.
NAMIBIA: Jan Frylinck, Louren Steenkamp, Gerhard Erasmus (capt), Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Zane Green (wk), Alex Busing-Volschenk, JJ Smit, Ruben Trumpelmann, Bernard Scholtz, Jack Brassell, Max Heingo.
SOUTH AFRICA: Lhuan-dré Pretorius, Jordan Hermann, Tony de Zorzi, Connor Esterhuizen (wk), Dewald Brevis, Rubin Hermann, Duan Jansen, Bjorn Fortuin (capt), Nqobani Mokoena, Prenelan Subrayen, Lutho Sipamla.