ICC World Cup 2019: Match 25, New Zealand vs South Africa – Who Said What

Remember Grant Elliott leaving the South Africans heartbroken in the 2015 World Cup semi-final? Kane Williamson did somewhat the same to the Proteas once again after four years. New Zealand and South Africa provided probably the best match of this World Cup so far to the fans and once again, it was the Kiwis who kept their nerves and got over the line. South Afric, yet again, ‘choked’ bottling up many chances to dismiss Kane Williamson and the same man hurt them scoring an unbeaten 106.

Chasing a total of 241 runs, New Zealand had found themselves at 80/4 from being comfortable at 72/1. Runs came at a snail’s pace but the partnership between Williamson and James Neesham was crucial. They added 57 runs off 87 balls and things just looked like going smoothly for them. But Chris Morris was the man of the moment for Faf du Plessis as the bowler struck to send back Neesham.

But it was Colin de Grandhomme’s day as the guy came out and blasted 60 runs off just 47 deliveries. On a pitch where every other batsman struggled, it was him who scored at a strike-rate of 127.66. His partnership of 91 with the captain Kane had sealed it for New Zealand. But De Grandhomme tried to finish the game and put his team in a little bit of trouble.

South Africa smartly bowled a couple of tight overs to bring the equation down to 14 runs off the last two overs and Lungi Ngidi had even brought it down to 12 off 7. However, Williamson was calm as ever and drilled boundaries when it needed the most and also brought up a much deserved century to take his team over the line. New Zealand also climbed to the top of the table with their fourth win in five matches and are still unbeaten.

Van der Dussen propels SA

Earlier in the day, after being put in to bat first, Hashim Amla and Rassie van der Dussen slammed half-centuries for South Africa. While the former had to curb his instincts due to a tricky pitch and fall of wickets at the wrong time, Van der Dussen took the innings deep and made sure that his team was always in the hunt. Aiden Markram and David Miller helped him along the way but at least the latter should’ve stayed until the end for the Proteas to post a par score on the board.

Eventually, they finished on 241 runs for the loss of six wickets after 49 overs and the credit has to go to New Zealand for bowling superbly. Even if they had let the opposition score 10-15 runs more, it would’ve been curtains for the Black Caps on the day. As it turned out, Williamson was the hero of the day and he broke the South African hearts again.

Man of the Match and New Zealand skipper, Kane Williamson said:

Man of the Match – It’s nice to be there at the end. It was a pretty tough surface, a bit soft and that ball was holding on. I thought the first half was a really good effort from us, pitching the ball in the right areas.

We knew at the halfway stage that we had done well with the ball. We then had to build partnerships, but we kept losing wickets and coupled with the tight South African bowling made life difficult for us. de Grandhomme for me was the standout with his bowling and the impetus he gave us with the bat in the end.

We just tried to get through the tough parts, we knew we would face dots. I just tried communicating with my partners, and despite trying to score quickly, I kept finding the fielders. Trying to do the job as well as you can, and a number of other contributions were vital. It was one of those surfaces that creates close contests and it was nice to get a win today.

New Zealand captain – To be honest, I thought the wicket was a little soft. so, both teams were looking to bowl on it. The wicket had a little softness to it and the bowlers hit the hard lengths. Well, you try to read the wicket as the game goes. The slower bowlers felt that they were the hardest to get away. The bowling attack did really well.

We just had a fairly quiet chat. He (Colin de Grandhomme) is our x-factor player. He came in and hit the ball beautifully. He played a brilliant knock. We have played on a variety of pitches. When you come into these tournaments, you know you will be playing different opponents on different wickets. Lot of big games coming up.

South Africa skipper, Faf du Plessis said:

We were aiming for 260. 260 was par on this wicket, 270 would have been a great score. 260 would have probably been a really good score. Individual batters needed to look at bowlers who they can put away. Kane did it well. He picked on the bowlers he wanted to. 100 from one guy helps in a chase.

I thought we threw ourselves around. We fought. The energy was unbelievable. Kane taking his team home was too good for us. There was no real appeal (on the Williamson nick against Tahir). There was no real ‘let’s have a look at it’. We can only control our performances. We are fighting as a team. We tried to compete but it was not to be.