Mammoth tons from Quinton de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen and brilliant bowling from Jansen and Maharaj dismantled the New Zealand batting order and shattered the Kiwis to a huge loss as they lost by 190 runs. Quinton de Kock smashed his 4th ton in ODI WC 2023 and has looked in ominous touch. New Zealand had a terrible day on the field as they dropped 3 catches and missed a vital run out of Quinton de Kock which was the turning point of the game.
In the top-of-the-table clash, New Zealand will take on South Africa at the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium in Pune on Wednesday. Both sides were coming on the back off thrilling encounters in their previous games however, the Proteas won their encounter against Pakistan but the Blackcaps lost a nail-biter to the Australians.
New Zealand won the toss and opted to bowl as both the teams made one change in the team it’s going to battle of bowlers as both teams have a strong batting order South Africa got off to a steady start as de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen consolidated the innings after their captain departed early for 24 off 28 balls with 4 fours and a six.
Quinton de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen’s record partnership takes proteas to 357
The duo of Quinton de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen put on a double-century partnership for the second wicket De Kock has hit the ball up in the air a couple of times. Quinton was lucky every time the ball has always landed in no man’s land and de Kock made full use of the opportunity and scored his 4th century of this World Cup with a six before departing for a brilliant 114 runs off 116 balls with 10 fours and 3 sixes the partnership of exactly 200 also ended along with him.
Rassie van der Dussen too scored a brilliant century and along with David Miller continued the firework with a fantastic partnership of 78 runs before departing for a well-made 133 runs off 118 balls with 9 fours and 5 sixes.
David Miller also scored a quick-fire half-century as he scored 53 runs off just 30 balls with 2 fours and 4 sixes at a strike rate of 176.66 to guide South Africa to another 350 plus score as they finished at 357 in 50 overs. Tim Southee was the pick of the bowlers with 2 wickets and Boult and Neesham picked up a wicket.
Marco Jansen and Co dismantle the New Zealand’s batting order
Marco Jansen continued his golden form in the powerplay as he picked up a wicket of Devon Conway cramps up. Marco Jansen again struck the big wicket of Ravindra hitting it straight down the throat of deep fine leg departed for just 9 runs off 16 balls.
Gerald Coetzee also struck in his first over as Will Young fell for 39 runs to a ball nibbles away slightly and Young hangs his bat out a nick and De Kock does the rest. Then Rabada joined the party as he got the wicket of the Kiwi skipper Latham good catch by Maharaj
Keshav Maharaj did his part by picking the wicket of a man in form of Daryl Mitchell after a brilliant catch by David Miller. Keshav Maharaj, who was brought into the attack, bagged the wicket. Miller held his nerves to complete the catch he was the second top scorer with 24 runs off 30 balls. Keshav Maharaj finished with the figures of 4 for 46 in his 9 overs Jansen also picked up 3 wickets and finished with the figures of 3 for 31 in his 8 overs with 1 maiden. Glenn Phillips is the top scorer for New Zealand with a brilliant 60 runs off 50 balls with 4 fours and 4 sixes.