25th Match - New Zealand v South Africa

[mr_mister]

just watched the highlights. jesus we tried hard to lose that game.

when i woke up and literally saw kane raising his bat through the blur i thought oh yeah easy win.

Yeah unfortunately the five min clips on YouTube have a picture of a guy from the winning team in the thumbnail, so it's really hard to get a spoiler free recap. Annoying

 

[BeeGee]

So Ferg now has 11 wickets @14 and Econ. 4.45. He's been outstanding.

Henry has 7 wickets @22 and Econ. 4.66.

We just need Boult to come to the party and that's a great seam attack.

 

[zorax]

Looks like an awesome game

 

[Grasshopper]

So Ferg now has 11 wickets @14 and Econ. 4.45. He's been outstanding.

Henry has 7 wickets @22 and Econ. 4.66.

We just need Boult to come to the party and that's a great seam attack.

Yeah, would be nice if Boult could chip in with some more wickets, not that he's bowling badly. I'm starting to worry about Latham's lack of contribution with the bat, and wouldn't mind seeing Blundell get a game or two soon.

Unfortunately for SA they were their own worst enemies today, as they so often have been at World Cups. Best of luck to our Saffer bros for your remaining games, especially against those dastardly Aussies.

 

[straw man]

I guess we just have to trust that Kane knew what he was doing with playing low-risk cricket and running it so close but geez it made it tight and nerve-wracking. Clearly he was cognisant it wasn't the pitch to push the scoring rate up without serious risks. Clearly he wanted to take responsibility himself to see it over the line. Clearly he knew he would just hit a four and then a six when needed, clearly. Faith in Kane.

Best ODI innings CDG has ever played and a good pitch for his mediums. Huge well done to him - if neither he nor Neesham had played that quick-scoring innings, noone below could've and we'd have fallen short.

Numerous moments for SA where if they'd done slightly better they probably would've won - even that woeful bit of fielding on the boundary where Rabada let the ball roll for four after Miller didn't quite get to the catch. Similar to WI I guess - losing key moments and some lax fielding is why they get close to winning but then end up in the relegation zone instead. (and this is against an NZ side that has lost almost every series decider in the last four years).

Top four set in stone unless Bangladesh beat Aus, or SL surprise everyone and beat England.

 

[Athlai]

Honestly it didn't feel that close until CDG got out and the penultimate over. (late on in the innings I mean, the early wickets were a different kind of close)

 

[Athlai]

If NZ win one more match then outside of some absolutely insane scenarios, we are through. 2 more wins and we probably end up 1st or 2nd on the table.

 

[straw man]

Honestly it didn't feel that close until CDG got out and the penultimate over. (late on in the innings I mean, the early wickets were a different kind of close)

I think when it's 31 needed off 30 or 26 from 24 you really want a big over, to allow for a low-scoring over or to lose a wicket later. But... they also were facing Miller, Rabada and Ngidi at that stage while knowing Phehlukwayo had to bowl one more over. So it got tighter than we'd like but ultimately, it worked.

 

[The Hutt Rec]

Tbf half you guys have been hating on CDG in this format for a while. I get his output had been weak but it always seemed like he had this innings in him

Kind of a travesty he didn't get man of the match. Kane I guess held his nerve but taking 1-33 off 10 these days is super useful to a team to go with his knock. Bowlers can only get MOMs if they take 5-20 it seems

I’d have given a joint MOTM for that game, Kane and CDG ... but it’s probably against tournament regulations, or something.

I think when it's 31 needed off 30 or 26 from 24 you really want a big over, to allow for a low-scoring over or to lose a wicket later. But... they also were facing Miller, Rabada and Ngidi at that stage while knowing Phehlukwayo had to bowl one more over. So it got tighter than we'd like but ultimately, it worked.

I think that was pretty key, we just had to accept that they were bowling pretty damn well, and if we made it through the easier bowler was coming up.

 

[Spark]

I thought the closeness of that total which was clearly below par IMO indicated that SA did very well to keep it close, but based on the mini match I'm watching they're a complete mess in the field. Dear me.

 

[Victor Ian]

Yeah, what was up in the fielding. Not just SA. NZ were also sloppy it seemed. Was it cold weather making stuff bodies and slippery grass, it just pressure. Both these teams are traditionally good in the field.

 

[Bahnz]

Yeah, what was up in the fielding. Not just SA. NZ were also sloppy it seemed. Was it cold weather making stuff bodies and slippery grass, it just pressure. Both these teams are traditionally good in the field.

South Africa have been garbage all world cup. NZ has excellent ground fielding skills, but have made a bit of a habit of dropping some dollies in recent seasons.

 

[Anon E Mousie]

I found that a gripping match.it had me on tender hooks from ball one. I guess the history between the teams was part of that, as was sleep deprivation and the vast amounts of black coffee.
Latham disappointed IMO, not just with the bat but strangely for him his keeping, not standing up to the slower bowlers. I wonder if his broken finger is still bothering him? Maybe it’s time to rest him and give Tom B a go against Windies? I’d also wonder if it’s time to give Southee a run in that match as well. The only reason being to give him a run, he has in the past, been great against both AUS & ENG and I think we the entire squad match fit.
Don’t get me wrong I don’t for one second think the Windies are easy beats, out last encounter proved that, but I do think preparing for the following two matches.

 

[thundaboult]

Wow. These two never disappoint. Although with the trend of these close to the wire finishes between Nz and SA, as a NZ fan I'd like to say...letssss actually start winning convincingly against these big teams as well...thrillers are great and all, mostly for neutrals,,,but not for me lol. My nerves have endured enough, New Zealand are always making their fans sweat. Great victory though and we should now have us a place in the semis unless we nosedive in the next 4 matches. Gutted for South africa though...boy o boy these guys always find themselves at the short end of the stick. Can't help but feel for them...

I can't believe I'm saying this but man...Cdg and Neesham...with their timely contributions throughout the tourny, deserve to keep their spot now. Glad to be eating my words and being proven wrong.

Also...Nicholls and Blundell should come in for Munro and Latham. The latter look horribly out of touch. Ik they won't tinker with the winning combo, but it needs to happen. Also, would love to see Sodhi get a game but have no idea how he can come in with Neesh and CDG both standing up at crucial times.

 

[thundaboult]

Special mention to Lockie, its so heartening to see the quickest guy stand up like this. Bond must be proud. I had a feeling he would have a good tournament and he is. The fast bowling junkie in me would love to one day see Kuggelejin, Lockie and Milne in the same New zealand attack. And to be honest, it will probably will happen if our selectors do the wise thing and decide to rest the likes of boult. Santner or Henry in some random odi series against sri lanka or whatever.

 

[Anon E Mousie]

Good point - I'd forgotten about Ish. Why not swap the bench - every man in the squad is capable on their day of being a match changer.

 

[vcs]

Well done NZ and Williamson - WAG.

Felt so sorry for Tahir when those catches were dropped and the review wasn't taken. Couldn't have been so different if they'd got a wicket at that stage.

 

[harsh.ag]

Saffer fans, welcome to being India fan in the 90s. We didn't even consider bottling it choking, it was just business as usual.

 

[OverratedSanity]

That missed runout chance from Miller was awful. This kind of **** happens so often in general where players make the throw look much more difficult to handle than it actually was. Any half decent fielder should've taken that cleanly and run KW out by a yard.

 

[Moss]

I guess we just have to trust that Kane knew what he was doing with playing low-risk cricket and running it so close but geez it made it tight and nerve-wracking. Clearly he was cognisant it wasn't the pitch to push the scoring rate up without serious risks. Clearly he wanted to take responsibility himself to see it over the line. Clearly he knew he would just hit a four and then a six when needed, clearly. Faith in Kane.

.

There was a post match session in the studio with Styris and Pietersen seems like there had been a bit of needle going on between them. When Styris said he felt this was a far from perfect display by NZ and thought they should have been less nervy in rhe chase, KP sort of latched on to this and went on quite a bit about how NZ aren't really in the same ballpark as Eng/India/Aus: which may be true, except his thesis was essentially "you've got Rohit, Buttler, Finch, Kohli, Maxwell etc striking at 120,and here you have Kane striking at 76, is KW capable of striking at 120?" which was missing the point completely.

Kane played the right innings for that situation and wicket, we saw enough times it wasn't a walk-in-and-score-from-ball-one kind of deck (though CdG's innings was a freak exception). You needed one guy to stay in and guts it out. While I don't think it was a perfect innings (he struggled to pick the gaps on many occasions and ate up a lot of unnecessary dots), strike rate was the least of anyone's concerns really.