Proteas win toss and bowl

South Africa won the toss and chose to bowl first in their Namibia T20 Tri-Series contest at the Namibia Cricket Ground (NCG) on Friday afternoon.

Both sides will be keen to deliver the first punch and put themselves in front in the race for one of the two spots in the final on 6 September.

Namibia has good memories of playing South Africa at the NCG. The hosts recorded a historic four-wicket victory in a last-ball thriller over the Proteas when they met here in a one-off T20I last year. South Africa batted first and struggled to get any traction, thanks to some great bowling from Ruben Trumpelmann and Max Heingo. The duo accounted for five of South Africa’s top six batters.

The pair will be in action again, albeit to a slightly different batting line-up. Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Rubin Hermann are the only returning batters from that contest. The Proteas also brought a changed bowling attack, with captain Bjorn Fortuin the only returning player from the side that played here last year.

Namibia’s bowlers made the best use of the slow surface, while their fielders complimented them with great catching. Fortuin will have taken note of what it took for the hosts to claim victory and he will be applying those lessons should those conditions present themselves again this time around.

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.