Lhuan-dre Pretorius smashes ton as South Africa edge high-scoring T20 to end Namibia jinx

[p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/namibia/8hqsGqUb/"]Namibia[/a] had won their ‌previous two T20 clashes with their neighbours, ‌both against depleted [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/south-africa/tUhlKzIm/"]South Africa[/a] teams, but this time came unstuck as the visitors posted ‌228 for four.[/p][p]Namibia were in the ⁠contest for much ‌of their innings but ran out of steam ​towards the back end as they reached 217 for three in their ​allotted 20 overs.[/p][p]South Africa were sent in to bat and a 156-run opening stand ⁠from 69 deliveries ​between [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/pretorius-lhuan-dre/vcKnBjn1/"]Pretorius[/a] and Connor Esterhuizen (88 from 40 balls) set them up for a massive total.[/p][embed guid="0899fe6a-a3f3-48c7-84cd-cfdfa4cb162f" url="https://x.com/ProteasMenCSA/status/2095903902663139424?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]Both batters hit eight sixes on the flat ‌wicket as they tore into the home bowling attack, with spinner Jan Balt (2-31 in four overs) the only one to come through relatively unscathed.[/p][p]Namibia also had a fantastic start as [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/frylinck-jan/ERxlv1mI/"]Jan Frylinck[/a] (72 from 36 balls) and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/steenkamp-louren/belPrJBg/"]Louren Steenkamp[/a] (61 from 44 balls) put on 119 in 65 balls for the ‌first wicket, but fell just short.[/p][p]They were ​not helped by Steenkamp retiring hurt at ‌the end of the 16th over after he took a blow to the head and then the arm in separate incidents.[/p][p]South Africa will play [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/zimbabwe/pCUnmKBm/"]Zimbabwe[/a] in ⁠the series final ⁠at the same ‌venue on Sunday.[/p][infobox id="584d9683-f419-4696-8cb3-c155213092a0" /]