With the ICC World Cup 2015 just around the corner, both South Africa and New Zealand will aim to make the most of the three-match One-Day International (ODI) series, with the first encounter starting Tuesday. The series is a great opportunity for the South Africa to get used to Oceanic conditions, something which every major team is vying for at the moment. The Kiwis on the other hand will look to get the much-needed confidence ahead of the ICC showpiece event, which is being hosted by Australia and New Zealand for the first time in over two decades.
New Zealand can draw inspiration from their past record against South Africa at home, having beaten the Proteas 16 times and half as many. New Zealand is known to be tough opponents in their backyard, having beaten India 4-0 in the last ODI series that was played here. The Kiwis also boast of a number of players who are specialists when it comes to limited-overs cricket, such as skipper Brendon McCullum, Corey Anderson, Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, and a few more. They will also field the highly-experienced Daniel Vettori on Tuesday, providing for some interesting contest between Vettori and players such as Hashim Amla, who is known to be a good player of spin, on tracks that do not have much to offer for spinners.
From the South African perspective, the series would look like a bit of a mismatch, given the difference in the positions that these two teams occupy on the latest ODI rankings. While South Africa sit comfortably on the third spot with a spate of consistent performances in the recent past, New Zealand occupy a lowly seventh spot, having played their last ODI well over nine months ago. South Africa also have some of the top players in their respective departments at present, such as Amla, AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis and Quinton de Kock in batting and the likes of Dale Steyn and Ryan McLaren in bowling. The duo of de Villiers and du Plessis were clinical during the recent triangular series in Zimbabwe which also featured Australia, where du Plessis scored four consecutive centuries, a remarkable feat from any perspective. The New Zealand tracks will be a happy hunting ground for Steyn as the hard pitches support a lot of bounce and assist seam movement.
Both skipper de Villiers and coach Russell Domingo however, have warned against taking the Kiwis lightly, which has proved fatal for the South Africans several times in the past. While Domingo labelled the Kiwis as a ‘tough outfit’ in their own backyard, skipper de Villiers rated the McCullum-led New Zealand as one of the favourites to lift the World Cup.
Squads:
New Zealand: Brendon McCullum (c) (wk), Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, James Neesham, Corey Anderson, Luke Ronchi, Nathan McCullum, Daniel Vettori, Kyle Mills, Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Dean Brownie, Matt Henry, Mitchell McCleneghan
South Africa: Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock (wk), Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers (c), Jean-Paul Duminy, David Miller, Ryan McLaren, Aaron Phangiso, Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn, Imran Tahir, Rilee Rossouw, Wayne Parnell, Vernon Philander, Kyle Abbott
Time: 10.30 local | 03:00 IST
(Amit Banerjee, a reporter at CricketCountry, takes keen interest in photography, traveling, technology, automobiles, food and, of course, cricket. He can be followed on Twitter via his handle@akb287)
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