Twitter Reactions: Kane Williamson's unbeaten 133 makes Matthew Breetzke's debut ODI ton go in vain

New Zealand emerged as comfortable winners over South Africa in the second game of the Tri Nation Series 2025. They managed to chase down the 305-run target with relative ease, winning the game by six wickets and eight deliveries to spare. This was New Zealand's second consecutive win at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore in the ongoing tri-series.

Being put in to bat first, South Africa got off to a relatively decent start. Skipper, Temba Bavuma was the first to depart. Matthew Breetzke and Jason Smith looked quite comfortable in the middle. Smith looked all set to get to his second ODI half-century in as many matches, only to get run-out through a brilliant piece of work from Mitchell Santner. Kyle Verreynne fell shortly after. Wiaan Mulder joined Breetzke in the middle. Breetzke went on to get to his maiden ODI ton in the 41st over.

Ben Sears was at the receiving end of a relentless 20-run blitz from Breetzke, who, in the same over, became the first batter to get to the 150-run mark. He could not carry on further, as the swashbuckling opener miscued his shot to mid-off in the very next over. From thereon, Mulder dealt a few blows with the bat. South Africa ended up scoring 304/6 at the end of 50 overs. Michael Bracewell was the most-economical bowler for the Kiwis, conceding only 43 runs in his allotted quota.

Coming to the run-chase, the Black Caps made a promising start to their powerplay. The dismissal of Will Young brought Kane Williamson to the middle. The two of them progressed quite smoothly into the innings. They rotated the strike quite well in addition to dispatching the loose balls efficiently. At the end of 30 overs, New Zealand were placed comfortably at 198/1. Devon Conway, coming in as a replacement for Rachin Ravindra, agonisingly fell short of his ton by three runs after Williamson brought up his first ton in ODIs since June 2019.

A double-wicket maiden by batting all-rounder, Senuran Muthusamy, seemed as if the brakes would be applied to the innings of New Zealand. Glenn Phillips joined hands with Williamson to guide the Black Caps through to a six-wicket victory. Despite the fairly narrow margin of victory in terms of the balls remaining, New Zealand were in control all along. The 612-run aggregate was the highest cumulative score in any of the 73 ODIs played between the two sides.

Check out how X reacted to Match 2 of the Tri Nation Series between NZ and SA