New Zealand suffered back-to-back losses to lose the series as well with South Africa coming back from 1-2 down to win series 3-2. History repeated itself as Connor Esterhuizen hurt the Kiwis for the second game in a row. New Zealand have to still wait for their first bilateral series win against South Africa in T20IS as Keshav Maharaj and his men showed character in winning this match and series as well. New Zealand lagged a lot in this match and we will try pointing out three reasons for their loss in 5th T20I.
Inability to stop Connor Esterhuizen especially in death overs dented New Zealand
New Zealand has done a lot of things right and a few things wrong as well. The one thing they haven’t been able to solve the puzzle is how to stop Connor Esterhuizen. Connor has been really explosive with the bat. In the last match, he batted at 3, and murdered the Kiwis and in this match, he was demoted to No.4 but looked a cut above the rest when he came into bat in the 11th over.
New Zealand just did not know what hit them as practically every bowler apart from Zak Foulkes went for plenty of runs. The Kiwis lacked in lines and lengths and was punished by Connor Esterhuizen. He played overs 11-15 very carefully and then went after the Kiwis in last 10 overs. 62 runs were scored in the last 5 overs and most of it came from the blade of Connor. Yes, he was given support by Dian Forrester, but he was only complimenting him and was a mere spectator. Connor was the show steeler in the end of the day.
New Zealand will hope whenever they meet again in future, they will have better plans to combat him and make it challenging for him going ahead. That will be the hope from everyone. The planning needs to be incisive and better planned in order to do well for the team. The Kiwis will hope for better planning and methods to do well in the end.
Losing wickets in clusters in middle phase dented New Zealand
New Zealand lost 2 wickets in the powerplay compared to 1 by South Africa but the Kiwis were about 3 runs ahead after powerplay overs. To put things into perspective, there was nothing in it after powerplay overs. But it is the middle phase where it came back to haunt the Kiwis much like it did in the previous game. The run rate went down as the Proteas kept things tight and then the hosts lost wickets as well.
Tim Robinson struggled for fluency and was run out unfortunately while Nick Kelly had a struggled stay at the crease scoring 14 off 18 balls. This really hurt the Kiwis badly as they went from 46/2 in 6 overs to 69/4 in the 11th over. The game had decisively turned in favour of South Africa now. The runs dried up and even though Bevon John Jacobs offered a brief ray of hope, it was just a bridge too far in the end for New Zealand.
Going forward, New Zealand needs to have better planning and good utilization of resources as to how to go about the chase. They need to crack the code of middle overs a lot better than what they are doing now and come back stronger whenever they play a next series anywhere. That has to be the aim, get better and learn from mistakes so that in the next series you are not found wanting. That should be the aim for the Kiwis going forward.
Multiple dropped catches and Jimmy Neesham’s flop show as captain sealed the fate
New Zealand pride themselves on the field as with bat and ball, they can be up and down. But in the field, they are generally electrifying. Sadly, through the course of this series their fielding has come unstuck to say the least. Today at Hagley Oval in Christchurch, it was no different. New Zealand just did not drop one catch, they dropped multiple catches and that really cost them the game.
Multiple players including Connor Esterhuizen was dropped and they really came to cost them as had the chances created were taken, South Africa would not have got 180+ and things might have been a lot different for everyone to understand. Even South Africa dropped a few in the field, but New Zealand’s drop was glaring to say the least.
The form of captain Jimmy Neesham is a concern for New Zealand for sure. In the last match, where he captained the side, he flopped and tonight was no different. He flopped again as with the ball he gave away 21 runs in 2 overs without picking up a wicket. With bat in hand, he just lacked fluency to say the least and scored 24 off 24 balls at run a ball hitting two fours. I mean going at run a ball in 188 chase is just not on. So, the captaincy experiment has not gone down well with Neesham.
New Zealand will have to get a lot of things right before they play their next bilateral series. It will most likely be a second string side going to Bangladesh with the regulars involved in franchise cricket. The series between these two teams is done and dusted. New Zealand have a series in mid-April while South Africa will have a break now.
Also Read: NZ vs SA: 3 Reasons For New Zealand’s Stunning Defeat In 4th T20I