A string of superb saves from Kevin Jean-Louis could not prevent Mauritius losing 2-0 to Zimbabwe on Sunday in a Cosafa Cup opening-round match.

Carlos Rusere and Ronald Chitiyo scored for the four-time champions at Moruleng Stadium near South African north-west mining town Rustenburg.

In the first Group A match, lowly Seychelles surprisingly held wasteful Namibia 0-0, and almost snatched victory in stoppage time.

The Southern Africa championship continues Monday with Lesotho playing Madagascar and Tanzania facing Swaziland in the opening Group B fixtures.

Mauritius were under pressure from the kick-off and Jean-Louis made a series of brilliant saves before being beaten by a Rusere volley on 28 minutes.

A deep cross fell perfectly for the unmarked Zimbabwean and his stinging left-foot strike flew across the goalkeeper and into the far corner of the net.

The victory-sealing second goal came on 66 minutes as a Jean-Louis parry fell kindly for Chitiyo, whose deflected shot found the net.

Although impressive in midfield, Chitiyo was a surprise man-of-the-match choice by Cosafa officials ahead of Jean-Louis.

Television replays confirmed that Zimbabwe scored a third goal in the final minute, but the referee waved play on after a Mauritian cleared a shot that crossed the line.

The other game was equally one-sided, but woeful shooting by Namibia and brave defending by Seychelles led to a goalless stalemate.

Much of the excitement was crammed into stoppage time with Sydney Uri Khob and Ananias Gebhardt squandering good chances for Namibia.

Seychelles then almost stole maximum points through Rennick Esther, whose goal-bound shot was pushed away by the outstretched leg of goalkeeper Virgil Vries.

Hosts South Africa, defending champions Zambia and guests Ghana are among six teams who received byes into the quarter-finals, where they will be joined by the two group winners.