“It’s incredibly special,” Hermann said about his innings. “I’ve been taught my whole life that you don’t just get a hundred, you try to push it further and further. I think that was also what the conditions were asking, so not just get a hundred but push on a bit.

“I didn’t want to give Namibia a sniff because they’re a good team and they’d get leverage to work with [if I got out]. I was trying to kill all sense of any bad patches of play that they can capitalise on. [I’m] chuffed that I could do that and get us in a winning position.”

Tony de Zorzi made 72 and added 190 off 167 with Hermann in a match-defining partnership for the second wicket. South Africa were 275 for 3 in the 42nd over, when Hermann got out. However, at 27 for 1 in the seventh over, their partnership did not start from a point of strength. There was jeopardy but there was also calm.

“We communicated well. It was a tricky stage, I think if we lose two wickets there, that gives them a sniff,” he said. “Tony has played a lot of international cricket as well. There wasn’t any pressure to be honest. We said this is what we’re gonna do and we stuck at it.”