With the 5th T20I Tri-Series match finally in the books, today was a dominating performance by New Zealand against South Africa. Although it didn’t have much impact since both teams qualified for finals action and will be playing sometime later on this week, this game gave them practice before the biggest event of this series.
As the Black Caps won by seven wickets, it felt like they nearly controlled the whole game and had the upper hand from start to finish. Despite benching some key pieces like Matt Henry and Bevon Jacobs, they gave newer pieces a chance to show what they were made of, which is exactly what they did during this match. Captain Mitchell Sataner had them on the charge once again, and he seemed to have another tactical approach in this match.
Now that they are 3-0, this group could potentially rest more pieces going into their final group stage match against an already eliminated Zimbabwe unit. Meanwhile, South Africa also benched a couple of key pieces like Nandre Burger and Corbin Bosch since they were also somewhat treating it like a practice match.
As they are done with all their group stage matches, this group finished 2-2 and are now just waiting for when the final will be played. But, there were a few concerns showcased during this game like the consistency of Lhuan-Dre Pretorious and how the batting would lineup if the middle order didn’t show up. With Rassie van Der Dussen at the helm, it will be interesting to see if he makes any changes prior to the next match and how he motivates them. Before that, it is first vital to go over the key components of today’s one-sided affair.
South Africa: Batting Order Gets Completely Rattled
As the Proteas were batting first today, they ended up tumbling to 134/8 at their innings end. Being 52/2 at one point, this unit’s middle order completely collapsed against New Zealand’s bowling attack today and couldn’t quite recover for any massive partnership. Outside of Reeza Hendricks being the one positive sign with his 41 runs and five combined boundaries, as he started showing some form again, the rest of this unit was nowhere to be found.
Captain Rassie van Der Dussen managed to get out at 14 runs today in a new opening position with Hendricks, and his wicket ended up being quite unfortunate since he was starting to build pressure with three boundaries. Looking at the 1-down position, Rubin Hermann was struggling to put up runs on every few balls consistently and got out at just a strike rate of just 83.33.
In fact, today was also a very rare occasion for Dewald Brevis, who usually hits at a 190 strike rate, since today he was scoring one run per ball and finished 13 of 13 before getting caught behind the stumps by Tim Seifert. The struggles of Lhuan Dre-Pretorious continued as he followed a 4-run performance against Zimbabwe by ending with a single one in this match and spending a whole over just trying to get used to this pitch.
Although Reeza Hendricks was already name as one of their stronger performers, the other one who made South Africa’s score a little closer to respectable was George Linde, as he smashed a massive six and a crisp four to get towards 23 runs. But around his time, a lot of the remaining batters like Gerald Coetzee and Senuran Muthuswamy folded early, which prevented them from creating a successful partnership towards the end.
New Zealand: Bowling Attack Live Up To Their Name Once Again
Looking at how loaded this Black Caps bowling lineup is, they once again did a terrific job of limiting a top-playing nation. Holding South Africa under 140 runs is not an easy task for any team, but New Zealand did this without making it look too difficult.
One name that should be mentioned in the attack was Zachary Foulkes, as he played his first match during this Tri-Series and was very solid during his three overs. Allowing just 12 runs, this was someone who went for a 4.0 economy near the middle overs and limited a lot of top South African power hitters from taking him on. Adam Milne also made a massive impact for the pace attack as he took the first early wicket by bowling a stunner to clean-bowl Rassie van Der Dussen.
Someone who kept it to around 5.5 runs per over, he managed to just give up a combined two boundaries on 24 balls bowled today. As he kept continuously hitting the same line and length, it made life much easier for Jacob Duffy to create strong spells with him both in powerplay plus death over time.
Talking about Duffy, he has become a mainstay on this New Zealand squad as his economy was a little high today, but this was someone who picked up Reeza Hendricks’ wicket. That was massive because it was a moment when the South African opener started feeling himself and seemed to have control of many Black Caps bowlers. To close out this attack, left-handed spinner Mitchell Santner played another strong role as captain and limited batsmen in the middle overs while taking out Lhuan-Dre Pretorious a little after Brevis left.
New Zealand: Another Classical Finish By This Group
Talking about New Zealand’s batting now, they really struck with an intent knowing they only had to chase down 134 runs. Openers Tim Seifert and Devon Conway had gotten to 50 runs in pretty quick succession during the powerplay, while both seemed to match each other’s aggression.
Left-handed Conway hit three boundaries and started imposing his will on South Africa’s bowlers by finding several open gaps all around the ground. Although he managed to get out within the powerplay itself, the opener really put New Zealand in a great position with Seifert still out there and attacking. Towards the middle of these innings when Rachin Ravindra lost his wicket at 59/2, there was a little bit of panic due to them losing batsmen so fast back-to-back, but this group was able to rub that off.
As Mark Chapman created a small little 25-run partnership with Seifert in the middle, he added a boundary and played some reasonable shots before getting out in the same exact way that Ravindra had. With that being said, Daryl Mitchell entered the game and once again was able to help this group reach the finish line.
Mitchell added 20 runs and had two beautiful strokes that went for boundaries, while Seifert remained the main aggressor on the other end once again. Being this group’s top run-scorer, he finished with 66 and seemed to hit boundaries at an unbelievable rate. Finishing with 8 combined, there was a clear sign of him being able to mix up his maximums and fours together.
South Africa: Rare Off Day For This Group’s Bowlers
For the South African bowling attack, this was a day to forget since they got completely smacked throughout these innings. Allowing 135 runs in just 15.5 overs, none of their bowlers looked like real wicket-taking threats outside of Senuran Muthuswamy. As he finished with two wickets, allowed just 6 runs per over, their other left-handed spinner in George Linde, was leaking runs like crazy and gave up a near 10 economy.
Another major issue was Gerald Coetzee, with him not being able to deliver balls at a fuller length and allowing New Zealand batsmen to take him on quite easily. As he gave up 37 runs in his three overs too, Kwena Maphaka being the only economical pacer today wasn’t a great formula. Although Andile Simelane only had a 5 economy, he just got one over, and it was because the more favorable bowler in Nqabyomzi Peter had another tough day attacking the stumps.
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