NZ v SA 4th ODI Review: New Zealand keep the unbeaten streak alive with a win

In probably the most important match of the ODI series AB de Villiers won the toss and decided to bat first at the Seddon Park in Hamilton on a surface that was expected to assist the spinners. The effect of the pitch was such that New Zealand a team known for their pacers through the ages decided to open the bowling with two spinners, which was a first in ODI cricket history.

Jeetan Patel who was brought in the team walked in replacing Ish Sodhi, the off-spinner opened the bowling and claimed the man in form Quinton de Kock on the third ball of the inning and the 24-year-old who had a streak of five half centuries in consecutive games was back with a second ball duck. Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis then had a decent second wicket partnership as they came hard at the Kiwi pacers.

Tim Southee and Trent Boult also opted to rely more on the cutters since the ball gripped off the wicket and was not easy to play the shots, they also denied the Proteas batsmen any pace behind the ball. Du Plessis and Amla still managed to crunch out runs but Kane Williamson having realized nothing was happening with the pacers in action brought back Patel and in the second over of his spell he cleaned up Amla for 40.

JP Duminy and Faf then added 62 runs together but were dismissed in a span of 12 runs to put New Zealand back in the game. Du Plessis scored 67 before Neesham had him caught by Santner while Duminy was out for 25 bowled by Southee. David Miller who hasn’t quite been amongst the runs fell to Mitchell Santner after scoring just 1 run. Dwaine Pretorius who had added valuable runs in the lower order earlier in the series was run out for 10 and South Africa were 6 down for 158 in the 37th over.

All this while skipper AB de Villiers held up his end pretty well and soon got to his half century a pretty important one for the team. He batted with the tail and ensured contributions from them – two fifty-plus partnerships at No.9 and 10 took them over the 250-run mark. AB was unbeaten on 72 from 52 balls at the end of the innings as Chris Morris and Wayne Parnell got out after scoring 28 and 29 respectively.

For the Black Caps, the pick of the bowlers was Patel who picked 2 wickets against 57 runs in his 10 overs. The left-arm spinner Santner thought got just 1 wicket was pretty economical spending just 40 runs; talking about runs conceded Neesham who used the cutters to great effect bowled 5 overs for just 15 runs and also got a wicket. Boult and Southee also had one each but that cumulatively cost them 140 runs.

The target for New Zealand wasn’t stiff, they would ideally fancy chasing down 280 with the kind of lineup they have but the Proteas would do all to ensure their supremacy in the series and away tours continued. With the spinners dominating the game South Africa just had one in their attack in Imran Tahir and relied more on the pace of Kagiso Rabada and Co. to deliver for them.

Martin Guptill who was making a comeback in the game after missing out the first part of the series looked to be in a different mood today. He lost his partner, Dean Brownlie, early to Rabada but that didn’t affect him. Skipper Williamson was also dismissed after he started to look good with his 21; he was hit in front by Tahir, the leggie struck once again but pretty late in the inning after Guptill and Ross Taylor had already added a massive 180 runs for the third wicket.

Guptill was in a thunderous mood and raced to his century off 82 balls, he had a brilliant partnership with Taylor and that ensured they were running away with the game. South Africa’s tactics failed as the pacers weren’t able to make the kind of impact they would have wanted to defend 280. Taylor was towards the end dismissed for 66 from 97, his right-handed partner continued the onslaught till the game was over remaining unbeaten on a massive 180 from just 138 balls that witnessed him strike 11 blows into the stands and some even beyond while 15 others crossed over the boundary ropes.

Having scored his 12th ODI century Guptill also added his name to the highest knocks by a New Zealander at the third slot as well with his 237* and 189 occupying the top two. The hosts finished the game with 7 wickets and 5 overs in hand to level the series and keep their hopes of maintaining the series winning streak at home alive.

Brief Scores:

South Africa: 279/8 in 50 overs (AB de Villiers 72*, Faf du Plessis 67; Jeetan Patel 2/57)

New Zealand: 280/3 in 45 overs (Martin Guptill 180*, Ross Taylor 66; Imran Tahir 2/56)