HARARE: Tim Robinson and debutant Bevon Jacobs put together an unbeaten century stand to provide the basis of New Zealand’s 21-run victory over South Africa in a T20 tri-series match in Zimbabwe.

Robinson smashed 75 not out off 57 balls and Jacobs smacked three sixes in his unbeaten 44 at Harare on Wednesday to propel New Zealand to 173-5 after they had crumbled to 70-5.

“The Proteas put us under pressure in the power play,” said New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner, hailing the “outstanding” partnership between Robinson and Jacobs.

Santner said Robinson and Jacobs had shown that it was a good pitch for batting. “We knew we had to bowl well,” he said.

South Africa, who made three changes from the team that beat Zimbabwe, were bowled out for 152 in 18.2 overs with fast bowlers Jacob Duffy (3-20) and Matt Henry (3-34) sharing six wickets between them.

Lhuan-dre Pretorius had provided South Africa with a brisk start by hitting six boundaries in his knock of 27 before Henry and Duffy hit back with two quick wickets.

Pretorius tried to guide Henry’s slower ball down to third man but got a thick outside edge to wicketkeeper Tim Seifert, while Rubin Hermann was outdone by Duffy’s short ball and was caught at mid-wicket for just one.

South Africa promoted debutant left-arm spinner Senuran Muthusamy to No.4, but the left-hander got his middle stumped knocked over by Ish Sodhi soon after the batting powerplay.

Captain Rassie van der Dussen (six) was brilliantly run out by his counterpart Mitchell Santner at the non-striker’s end as South Africa slumped to 5-62 in the ninth over.

Dewald Brevis put the chase back on track with 35 off 18 balls and George Linde made a brisk 30 off 20 but both holed out while looking for big hits against Henry and Duffy, respectively.

Duffy was on a hat-trick when he dismissed Linde and Kwena Maphaka off successive balls but No. 11 Lungi Ngidi survived before Henry finished off the game by having Gerald Coetzee caught at mid-wicket.

New Zealand’s top-order crumbled against the short ball as Devon Conway’s return to T20s after three years lasted only seven balls for nine before he top-edged Maphaka (2-38).

Daryl Mitchell and Mitchell Hay both fell for single digits while James Neesham got his seventh duck in T20s when he pulled Maphaka to deep square leg and was caught by Corbin Bosch.

But Robinson and Jacobs revived the Black Caps with their 103-run partnership and got the perfect finish by scoring 63 off the last five overs.

Robinson completed his half-century with a six off Coetzee, who came back to international cricket after a nine-month injury lay-off and conceded 19 runs in the final over to finish with 1-39.

“It was a really good pitch,” said Van der Dussen. “The bowlers did their part but it was not a good batting performance.”

Scoreboard

NEW ZEALAND:

T. Seifert c Muthusamy b Ngidi 22

D. Conway c Pretorius b Maphaka 9

T. Robinson not out 75

D. Mitchell c b Coetzee 5

M. Hay lbw Muthusamy 2

J. Neesham c Bosch b Maphaka 0

B. Jacobs not out 44

EXTRAS (LB-3, W-13) 16

TOTAL (for five wickets, 20 overs) 173

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-27 (Seifert), 2-35 (Conway), 3-62 (Mitchell), 4-69 (Hay), 5-70 (Neesham)

DID NOT BAT: M. Santner, M. Henry, I. Sodhi, J. Duffy

BOWLING: Ngidi 3-0-28-1 (3w), Maphaka 4-0-38-2 (5w), Bosch 4-0-33-0 (1w), Coetzee 4-0-39-1 (2w), Linde 1-0-13-0, Muthusamy 4-0-19-1

SOUTH AFRICA:

L.D. Pretorius c Seifert b Henry 27

R. Hendricks b Santner 16

R. Hermann c Henry b Duffy 1

S. Muthusamy b Sodhi 7

R. van der Dussen run out 6

D. Brevis c Mitchell b Henry 35

G. Linde c Conway b Duffy 30

C. Bosch lbw Sodhi 8

G. Coetzee c Neesham b Henry 17

K. Maphaka c Santner b Duffy 0

L. Ngidi not out 0

EXTRAS (NB-1, W-4) 5

TOTAL (all out, 18.2 overs) 152

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-34 (Pretorius), 2-35 (Hermann), 3-50 (Hendricks), 4-60 (Muthusamy), 5-62 (van der Dussen), 6-101 (Brevis), 7-111 (Bosch), 8-148 (Linde), 9-148 (Maphaka)

BOWLING: Henry 3.2-0-34-3, Duffy 4-0-20-3 (1w), Sodhi 4-0-34-2 (1w), Neesham 3-0-29-0 (1w, 1nb), Santner 4-0-35-1 (1w)

RESULT: New Zealand won by 21 runs.

PLAYER-OF-THE-MATCH: Tim Robinson

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2025