New Zealand vs. South Africa and it turned out to be another thriller, to keep New Zealand quiet for long it is a hard thing to do. So both teams were ready South Africa would have wanted to win their 13th ODI in a row, and New Zealand would have wanted to equalise in this game.
The opening pair of Brownlie and Latham didn’t really put on much of a partnership, but it was the partnership of Taylor and Williamson which really flourished. It allowed New Zealand to build a total that was defendable and put South Africa under pressure. Taylor and Williamson played beautifully and really were taking the game away from South Africa.
It definitely was hard grafting for the South African bowlers, but they definitely were giving it their all, but the partnership of Williamson and Taylor was just getting better. Taylor was in sublime form, but Williamson had departed for 69 runs after such a great partnership. Taylor still carried on and built another crucial partnership with Neesham. Taylor got to his century and remained not out for 102 runs and Neesham also remained not out on 71 runs. New Zealand had set South Africa a total of 289 runs to chase down.
When South Africa came out on the field to bat it was all eyes on them, their innings were full of surprises literally. As Quinton was amongst the runs but then he threw it away and lost his wicket the same goes for Duminy. After that South Africa wobbled and lost a few wickets and found themselves in trouble. De Villiers was playing a sensible innings once again but what happened was he got at a crucial juncture, and so did Miller. It looked like New Zealand had given the game away but they found themselves back in the game. This game was a swinging pendulum it had everyone on the edge of their seats.
In came in Pretorious and hit a quick fire 50 runs of 27 balls, but then he got out. He had helped South Africa get back in the game but in the end the New Zealand bowlers held their own and South Africa ended up losing this game by 6 runs. They will definitely be kicking themselves to lose the game like this, but you have to give to New Zealand they smashed in the end, the seniors of the team stood up and performed at the crucial points in the match and swung the match in their favour.
Post match commentary (credit espncricinfo.com)
Ross Taylor is Man of the Match.
7pm Phew! What a match! New Zealand did really well to strange South Africa in the middle and then did really poorly to let them back in. But they edged it out in all the important phases – two solid partnerships in the middle overs when batting, and top-class death bowling to eek out a win. Quinton de Kock and JP Duminy in particular will feel prickly when they try to go to bed tonight – they got in and threw it away. AB de Villiers wasn’t new to this situation, and played it sensibly, but fell at a crucial time, as did Miller. That’s the end of their winning streak that lasted 12 games.
New Zealand got efforts from all their seniors – Williamson, Taylor, Southee and Boult. Santner was brilliant as well – 2 for 46. They didn’t deserve to lose.
Shaheer: “Well, Boult made up for that catch drop with a stunning match winning over”