South Africa's batsman Faf du Plessis inspired the Proteas to another win against hosts Zimbabwe to book a place into Saturday's cricket triangular series final in Harare on Thursday.

South Africa will play Australia in the final with two having beaten each other once so far in this series.

Du Plessis scored 121 runs after South Africa had been asked to bat first by Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura who had won the toss.

Zimbabwe entertained a sliver of hope to reach the final but they needed to chase down a winning total of 272 in 24 overs and they never really looked like they could achieve that.

They were possibly more concerned about a winning performance even if it did not take them to the final.

South Africa dealt well with Zimbabwe's spin which caused problems for Australia in a match played on Tuesday and was won by the hosts.

Former Zimbabwe captain Brendan Taylor batted solidly cracking 79 runs and he was left down by lack of support from the other end.

Most of Zimbabwe's key batsmen made good starts but they failed to kick on there after with opener Sikandar Raza Butt falling for 29 while Hamilton Masakadza made 26.

Zimbabwe was eventually bowled out for 208 runs but they will be pleased that they competed well after all.