Related Links : New Zealand’s Tour of South Africa : Scorecard
South Africa just managed to beat New Zealand in the Only Twenty20 International which was played at the Wanderers in Johannesburg. The Kiwis despite posting a relatively small target of 130 fought right till the last over with the homeside winning by 3 wickets and with a single ball to spare.
SA put New Zealand to bat first after winning the toss and the top order struggle for the visitors continued as it was during the Test Series. They were hopelessly placed losing their main batsmen without much on the board. Shaun Pollock, who wasn’t a part of the Test Series proved a point or two with a couple of wickets upfront. He was well supported by the inform Dale Steyn who hardly gave anything away for the Kiwis. None of the Kiwi batsmen could get going barring from Scott Styris, who made 30 from 27 with no one really able to put up any sort of partnership. When Styris fell in the 17th over, NZ were struggling at 98 for 7 which was just not enough for a Twenty20 affair. Towards the end, they could stretch their total to 129 for 7 with Kyle Mills delivering some useful blows. He remained unbeaten with a 24-ball 33 that had a boundary and two sixes. Among the bowlers, Shaun Pollock finished with 3 for 28 in his 4 and Steyn got a very mean 1 for 17 in his 4. Johan Botha, the offie got away with 1 for 19 in his 4 overs.
For SA, Kallis opened the batting with Skipper Graeme Smith but both openers fell cheaply to lift the spirits of the Kiwis. Then a key partnership between left handed Jean-Paul Duminy and AB de Villiers put them back on track to chase the 130 target. The complexion of the match changed when the spin twins Daniel Vettori and Jeetan Patel got three key wickets to have SA at 103 for 5. They weren’t too many runs to get for SA and with AB de Villiers still there in the middle, the match was theirs. They were a couple of quite overs and a couple of more wickets going down, but AB de Villiers stayed right till the end to see that SA won the game. AB de Villiers helped himself to a 45-ball 52 with 4 fours and a six to get the Man of the Match award. For the Kiwis, Jeetan Patel was the most outstanding bowler with figures of 4-0-17-2.