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Proteas prevail
in a tight finish in the Only Twenty20 |
Link to 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.
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