Disciplined South Africa restrict New Zealand to 221

By Jamie Alter

 

Backing their spin-heavy attack to deliver them the goods, South Africa kept New Zealand on a leash and will chase 222 to enter the semi-finals. New Zealand’s innings was largely built around one partnership, which came after they had slumped to 16 for two, but a platform was squandered as South Africa refused to give up.

By Jamie Alter

 

Mirpur: Mar 25, 2011

 

Backing their spin-heavy attack to deliver them the goods, South Africa kept New Zealand on a leash and will chase 222 to enter the semi-finals. New Zealand’s innings was largely built around one partnership, which came after they had slumped to 16 for two, but a platform was squandered as South Africa refused to give up.

 

Daniel Vettori’s decision to bat first appeared in danger of backfiring as South Africa dismissed the openers to leave New Zealand 16 for two. Robin Pietersen snatched a diving return catch to send back Brendon McCullum, and Johan Botha held an easy catch at mid-off to get Martin Guptill off Dale Steyn. A solid rescue act followed, as Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor nursed New Zealand back into the game with an intelligent 114-run stand.

 

Ryder, playing confidently off front foot and back, blunted Peterson and Botha’s wares and took runs off a wayward Morne Morkel. With three boundaries off Morkel, some momentum had been wrested back and Ryder was away. He cracked a majestic drive through cover and cut four firmly past point, forcing Graeme Smith to swap Morkel for Jacques Kallis.

 

Kallis proved tougher to handle, but Ryder and Taylor scrapped hard and were able to consolidate. Taylor played and missed a few times, with the pitch affording both appreciable seam movement and bounce, but once his trademark square-drives started to find their range, the complexion of the innings changed. With the more graceful Ryder playing some gorgeous strokes down the ground, Taylor nudged the ball around and a fruitful stand was formed.

 

As is so often the case, it was the bowling change that did the trick, with Tahir’s leg-spin tempting Taylor into a false heave and Morkel accounting for Scott Styris as the bat started to be thrown around. Tahir was rewarded for aggressive bowling when he got Ryder to pick out one of two fielders deep on the leg side and Ryder’s response summed up the significance of that dismissal. Smith had marshalled his bowlers frequently in search of wickets, and his smart use of spin in particular meant New Zealand were unable to really force the pace.

 

Those three blows, within the space of six overs of each other, caused a sharp decline in the scoring rate, as Kane Williamson was forced to do the rebuilding act. New Zealand threatened a late-order disintegration as Steyn returned to snuff out Nathan McCullum, but Williamson shepherded the team sensibly through till the end, squeezing 37 off the batting Powerplay. Some support would have aided Williamson, but Morkel’s pinpoint accuracy in the penultimate over accounted for Jacob Oram and Vettori.

 

Brief Scores: New Zealand 221 for 8 (Jesse Ryder 83, Ross Taylor 43, Kane Williamson 38*; Morne Morkel 3 for 46, Imran Tahir 2 for 32, Dale Steyn 2 for 42) vs South Africa.

(Jamie Alter is a freelance cricket writer, having worked at ESPNcricinfo and All Sports Magazine. His first book, The History of World Cup Cricket, is out now. His twitter feed is @jamie_alter)

 

Pictures © Getty Images

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