South Africa beat New Zealand by five wickets

Centurion: South Africa beat New Zealand by five wickets, making sure that they did not crash out of the tourney early-on. It was a calculated performance by Graeme Smith’s men.
           It was AB de Villiers’ (70*) day with the bat as the hosts kept to their plan of achieving the target of 215 runs at a slow and steady manner. It was the right combination as the win keeps South Africa alive in the Champions Trophy 2009. it was apt that he sealed the victory in style, finishing the job that he was sent to do.
           The Kiwis did the first right thing in such a type of a run-chase- they took an early wicket, but could not follow it up with some quick ones. The first blunder they made was to be wrapped-up for a paltry 214, largely owing to a clinical performance by the hosts.

South African Innings

Mark Boucher’s 28 off 28 didn’t do his statistics any good but the small target made the runs bridge the gap significantly.

Hashim Amla (38) took the total forward despite a tight line and length by the New Zealand bowlers, finally getting out to captain Vettori’s delivery.

Jacques Kallis (37), despite showing signs of good form, could not capitalize on his hard work and was done in by a wily Shane Bond delivery.

South Africa skipper Graeme Smith punched a Tuffey quicker into the hands of Daniel Vettori at a score of just 22 runs.

New Zealand Innings
      The constant loss of wickets and the inability to dominate the bowlers was the undoing of the Kiwi batsmen. They could never dominate even one small section of the innings, losing out to the opposition in a meek fashion, leaving the hard task of defending the total to the bowlers.
      Ross Taylor (72) was the only batsman to be in some control of the proceedings in the middle, but he too was found plumb in front of the wicket, thus ending his effort to spiral the innings at the death overs.

It was a great outing for Wayne Parnell as he got his first five wicket haul and that too in a crucial game.                

Daryl Tuffey (4), Gareth Hopkins (13) and Kyle Mills (0) looked ordinary and rash, losing out on an opportunity to set up a good total for the Proteas to chase.