Harare: Zimbabwe dominated South Africa to surprisingly win the final of the Twenty20 tri-series at Harare Sports Club by nine wickets on Sunday.

Opener Hamilton Masakadza made his fourth half-century in five innings at the tournament and captain Brendan Taylor spurred the host on with an unbeaten 59 from 41 balls as Zimbabwe cruised to 150-1 in 17.1 overs in reply to South Africa's 146-6.

Masakadza finished 58 not out, sharing an unbroken 118-run partnership with Taylor.

The off-form Proteas, who rested four frontline players for the series, were 67-5 before Faf du Plessis' 66 dragged them to a reasonable score.

South Africa captain Hashim Amla said ``hopefully we have learnt some hard lessons'' ahead of the team's tour of England starting next month and September's T20 World Cup.

These matches were not classed as internationals, the games falling outside the ICC's Future Tours Programme and having originally been set up as simple practice matches, but that mattered not a jot to a packed Sports Club crowd.

Brief scores
South Africa 146 for 6 (Du Plessis 66, Jarvis 2-22)
Zimbabwe 150 for 1 (Taylor 59*, Masakadza 58*)
Result Zimbabwe won by nine wickets
MOM Brendan Taylor (Zimbabwe)
Man of the series Hamilton Masakadza (Zimbabwe)