Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Live Cricket Coverage: Newzeland Vs South Africa T20 Match

The fifth day of the ICC World T20 will see South Africa and New Zealand clash in a game that will have no bearing on which team goes into the second round of the competition from their group, after both the teams beat Scotland to book their Super Eight place.

South Africa’s demolition of Scotland in their previous game makes them the favourites going into the game, Paddy Power offering 4/7 for them to beat the Kiwis.

By Brendon McCullum’s own frank admission, New Zealand were in a bit of a shock at the interval, but overcame the weak Scottish bowling to win it for the team.

Jacques Kallis continued batting the way one has seen him bat all his life, but with a slightly more aggressive approach.

At the other end, Graeme Smith is slowly finding his feet after a rather disappointing season of the IPL and he could be one to explode as the tournament progresses.

However, the one man who has been a trifle quiet – due to no fault of his I may add – is J.P.Duminy, who was in excellent touch leading up to the tournament, but hasn’t had too many opportunities to showcase his talent yet. My feel is that Duminy could be the one who gets his chance and grabs it with both his hands.

New Zealand may have bowled rather shoddily against Scotland, but their batting more than made up for it. Brendon McCullum will look to relinquish the captaincy, in turn hope that Daniel Vettori makes a comeback to the team after a shoulder injury had put him out.

Jesse Ryder has been given an extended run in the team, and will look to live up to his reputation and try and annihilate the bowling. However, Dale Steyn would have seen a lot of him in the Royal Challengers Bangalore nets and could prove to be his nemesis.

Amongst the top-order, it is Ross Taylor who continues to impress after an indifferent start to the IPL. He will be my favourite to get stuck into the Proteas bowling in the game.

It will take the Kiwis to play really well to get the better of a balanced side like South Africa, and even then, it may necessitate the Proteas to slip-up in their play!

Teams:

New Zealand : DL Vettori*, NT Broom, IG Butler, BJ Diamanti, JEC Franklin, MJ Guptill, BB McCullum†, NL McCullum, PD McGlashan, KD Mills, IE O’Brien, JDP Oram, JD Ryder, SB Styris, LRPL Taylor.

South Africa : GC Smith*, J Botha, YA Abdulla, MV Boucher†, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, HH Gibbs, JH Kallis, JA Morkel, M Morkel, JL Ontong, WD Parnell, RJ Peterson, DW Steyn, RE van der Merwe.

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