Wesley Madhevere, who had a terrible start for Zimbabwe, made up for it with an unbeaten 35 off 18 balls, and Quinton de Kock, who had an explosive start for South Africa with an unbeaten 47 not out off 17 balls.
However, the Men's T20 World Cup Super 12 match between the two teams in Group 2 was washed out due to rain, leaving both sides with a point each.
Rain prompted a delay of two hours and 35 minutes in the match, during which Madhevere helped Zimbabwe fight to 79/5 in nine overs after being 19/4 at one stage. South Africa was well on their way to chasing down the target owing to de Kock's early onslaught, which featured eight fours and one six.
South Africa was well within their ability to chase down the score, even if the goal was lowered to 64 in seven overs. However, weather derailed their carefully set preparations, resulting in a tie and preventing the Proteas from winning.
De Kock got the game going right away by drawing Tendai Chatara for back-to-back fours in the first two balls of the session. A top-edge on flick then made it a hat-trick of fours by ballooning over short fine leg.
In the 23-run first over, De Kock further destroyed Chatara by hitting a length ball over long-on for six and then pulling to the right of deep square leg for four more runs. The game was stopped by rain once more at 1.1 overs, so the players left the field for a time.
De Kock pounced on Richard Ngarava's bowling, smashing a hat-trick of fours past mid-off, deep square leg, and cover while the new target was 64 from seven overs and there was a powerplay of two overs. De Kock then cut forcefully through point for the innings' fourth four.
After that, with injury concerns hovering over Zimbabwe, Ngarava cautiously exited the field while gripping his left thigh after slipping in his follow-through and falling to the ground due to the damp circumstances.
With de Kock striking at 261.11 after three overs, South Africa needed 13 runs off of 24 balls to claim their first victory of the competition. But eight minutes before the game's deadline, it started to rain heavily once more. The rain gods wouldn't let up so de Kock and South Africa could finish their pursuit, ultimately leading to the first washout of the competition.
South Africa made early inroads with the ball, leading to an early collapse, earlier after rain forced a significant delay in the preliminaries and Zimbabwe chose to bat first at the toss. This limited the contest to nine overs a side shootout.
Captain Craig Ervine toe-ended a slog to mid-on in the second over, which was bowled by left-arm bowler Wayne Parnell, setting off the collapse. The wicketkeeper took both catches in the space of three balls when right-arm fast bowler Lungi Ngidi made two strikes in the following over, drawing feather edges on attempts to cut by Regis Chakabva and pull attempts by Sikandar Raza.
At 19/4 in 3.4 overs after Sean Williams was run out by David Miller in the fourth over, Zimbabwe was in serious difficulty. In order to lead Zimbabwe's comeback, Madhevere stepped in and hit four fours and a six with a strike rate of 194.44.
He was elegant in his drives, pulls, cuts and ramp while sharing a 55-run partnership off 33 balls with Milton Shumba, who made 18 off 20 balls before paddling a catch behind to keeper off Anrich Nortje on the final ball of the innings.
Brief Scores: Zimbabwe 79/5 in nine overs (Wesley Madhevere 35 not out, Milton Shumba 18; Lungi Ngidi 2/20, Wayne Parnell 1/6) against South Africa 51/0 in three overs (Quinton de Kock 47 not out), match abandoned due to rain