Kolkata: South Africa and New Zealand aren’t world beaters in white-ball cricket. In fact, they have found ways not to win the World Cup, finding themselves agonisingly at the wrong end of some pretty perplexing rules at times.
New Zealand's skipper Mitchel Santner arrives for a press conference in Lahore on Tuesday. (AP)
But they are also the kind of opposition you don’t want to face in a semi-final. Balanced, spirited and veritably skilled, these are teams who in the recent past have found themselves in a World Cup final. Another crack at an ICC event final—albeit the Champions Trophy — should drive them to find their best once again.
Adding more intrigue is the acute lack of bilateral white-ball cricket between the two (they haven’t played each other since 2017) even though New Zealand have the better ICC tournaments record with seven wins in 11 games, most notably in the knockouts during the 2011 and 2015 World Cups.
But the zest with which South Africa have bounced back in recent years—marked by an inspiring semi-final run in the 2023 ODI World Cup before reaching the 2024 T20 World Cup final—has probably evened this contest more than ever.
At the heart of this upsurge is the consolidated improvement of South Africa’s bowling but more significantly the heft that Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller add in the middle order. Having scored five consecutive ODI fifties now, Klaasen has given South Africa’s batting a much-needed makeover.
His middle-overs batting underpins a clever use of the crease, especially against spinners, something Santner and Michael Bracewell will be keen to test. And then there is Miller’s game awareness, which has often rescued South Africa in the most hapless of situations.
There however exists an argument that New Zealand are more accustomed to Pakistan conditions by now, having played and won the trination series hosted just before the Champions Trophy. Even their last encounter at Lahore last month was pretty one-sided—South Africa posting 304/6 but New Zealand romped to a six-wicket win with eight balls to spare.
Going by recency though, South Africa have as much to gain from their comprehensive wins against England and Afghanistan as New Zealand have to lose from their defeat to India.
The to-and-fro travelling from Dubai is bound to have sapped some of that nervous energy that a semi-final can stoke but New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner is taking it in his stride, saying that scheduling is an “issue just all around”.
“It was actually more of a daytime sleep,” Santner said before the semi-final at Lahore. “I think it was a tough travel but it’s nice to get it done, get here and kind of a reset and get ready for today (training) and tomorrow’s game. “I think when you do have time to rest and recover it’s very important. One-day cricket can be very exhausting on the body, so for us it’s making sure that the bowlers are ready.”
They need to be, because the subplot of South Africa’s batting against New Zealand’s finger spinners could decide the outcome of the match. Barring Klaasen, Miller and Aiden Markram, South Africa’s record against finger spin is pretty abysmal. This though is Lahore where spinners have got very little support.
As a venue, Lahore has been the most generous of the tournament, with the average first innings total during the group stage being 316. Seamers too have got a lot of help under the lights, making the toss even more vital. New Zealand will be mindful of that, given they are relying heavily on their finger spinners and bowling second might negate their chances.
Considering how South Africa failed to defend 304 in their last face-off, they could be in a quandary over whether to defend or chase. Santner believes South Africa too “have all aspects covered”. “They have four good seamers and Lahore would probably not be spinning as much as Dubai. We have seen (spinner Keshav) Maharaj for a long time, they have (spinner Tabraiz) Shamsi and (all-rounder Aiden) Markram can be tidy with the ball. So I think they are a well balanced side.”
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