Kaia keeps Zimbabwe's hopes of making tri-series final alive

Namibia now face a must-win game against South Africa on Friday

Zimbabwe 159 for 5 (Kaia 72, Trumpelmann 2-41) beat Namibia 156 for 6 (Erasmus 88*, Evans 2-29) by five wickets

A career-best 72 from Innocent Kaia kept Zimbabwe's hopes of making the Namibia tri-series final alive as they beat the hosts for the second time in the tournament. Zimbabwe now hold a slight edge over Namibia, having beaten them nine times in 17 meetings, including their last three matches.

After a last-ball thriller between the teams on Monday, Zimbabwe played like the more experienced side they are and had Namibia under pressure from the get-go. After putting Namibia in to bat, they made run-scoring difficult, took early wickets and despite an 83-run partnership between Gerhard Erasmus and Alexander Busing-Volschenk, limited them to a gettable score. Brad Evans' 2 for 29 meant he joined Duan Jansen as the joint leading wicket-taker in the series with eight to his name.

While Zimbabwe's bowling is routinely their strong suit, their batting has been prone to collapses in this series. Kaia shared fifty-plus stands with Brian Bennett and Sikandar Raza but the inevitable wobble came when they lost three wickets for eight runs in 11 balls. By then, Kaia had polished off most of the target and it was up to Ryan Burl and Tadiwanashe Marumani to finish off. They reached the target in the 19th over but their net run-rate remains negative.

Zimbabwe will qualify for the final if South Africa beat Namibia on Friday.

The series' best Powerplay

Run-scoring has come fairly easily early in the innings throughout this series but this time, with gusty conditions and a used pitch, things were vastly different in the first six overs. Zimbabwe's attack made good on Sikandar Raza's decision to put Namibia in and a combination of spin and seam up-front kept things quiet before the introduction of Evans provided a breakthrough. Evans pitched it back of a length, Louren Steenkamp tried to slice it over square leg and with the ball swirling, Wessly Madhevere took a well-judged catch. In the next over, Blessing Muzarabani had Jan Frylinck swinging across the line and caught at point. Kundai Matigimu was introduced in the final over of the Powerplay, found extra bounce and his first T20I wicket when he had Zane Green caught behind, Namibia were 26 for 3, the worst Powerplay score of the series, where the previous lowest total was 34 for 2.Gerhard Erasmus made 88 of Namibia's 156 for 6•Cricket Namibia

Erasmus holds Namibia together

Namibia's captain Erasmus has had a quiet series by his standards with scores of 19 and 12. But, when presented with the opportunity to fix that here, he took it. Erasmus had faced two balls by the time the Powerplay ended and had Busing-Volschenk at the other end. He was happy to let his younger partner play his shots. At the halfway stage, Erasmus was on 10 off 11 and only then did he hit his first boundary: a cut off his opposite number, Raza. Then, he sent Wellington Masakadza into the parking lot for his first six, and overtook Busing-Volschenk. From there, Erasmus was in total control. He took a liking to Matigimu and hit boundaries off him on both sides of the wicket and reached fifty with a pull off Evans, off the 32nd ball he faced. When Busing-Volschenk was dismissed and their 83-run fourth-wicket stand ended, Erasmus had to usher Namibia to a strong finish. He went after anything short and was brutal off Evans' last over, and took 14 runs off it as Namibia set Zimbabwe 157.

Namibia lose their Innocence

Zimbabwe lost Ben Curran early and, given how things have gone for their middle-order in this series, could easily have unraveled but Kaia intervened. Brought into the XI in place of a misfiring Dion Meyers, Kaia had one T20I fifty to his name before Thursday, and that was his only other score over 30 in 20 innings, But his start defied those figures. Namibia opted for seam, not spin as they usually do, so Kaia would have anticipated short lengths and he was the picture of confidence as he picked Ruben Trumpelmann off his hips to fine leg for his first four and then hooked him for six in the same over.

Instead of adjusting their plans, Namibia kept banging it in short, and Kaia responded with a powerful array of shots on the leg side. When Max Heingo eventually went full, Kaia had an answer for that too. He shuffled away and flicked him through mid-on. Zimbabwe were 59 for 1 after the Powerplay with Kaia on 36. Kaia greeted spin in the form of Jan-Nicol Loftie-Eaton with a shot that went straight past the bowler for four and then reached his fifty off Jack Brassell with another magnificent pull. He took Zimbabwe 33 runs away from victory before he played one big shot too many. Kaia top-edged a pull off Brassell to Erasmus at mid-on and was dismissed for 72.