One Day Internationals
Morne Morkel claimed his maiden five-wicket haul in ODIs and Hashim Amla produced his first significant innings of the tour to lead the Proteas to a six-wicket victory over New Zealand with 70 balls to spare at McLean Park, Hamilton, on Wednesday. It was a result that clinched the three-match series for the Proteas 2-0 with the final match to be played at Auckland's Eden Park on Saturday and thus completed the limited overs double as they had previously won the T20 series 2-1. It was the Proteas' fourth international tour win in a row and will give them excellent momentum heading into next week's Test series.
"I thought we played consistent cricket throughout the match," commented captain AB de Villiers. "Morne Morkel set the standard with the ball and then Hashim Amla got us away to an excellent start with the bat and took the pressure off the middle order to finish off the job."
New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum commented: "We competed well at times but we were found wanting on the big points."
New Zealand got off to a good start in the game as Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum shared a 107-run stand for the 2nd wicket after Lonwabo Tsotsobe had removed Rob Nicol early for 11. The vital partnership was broken by Jacques Kallis when the veteran allrounder had Guptill caught behind for 58 in the 25th over of the match. The Proteas effectively won the match in the second half of New Zealand's innings when they took 8/68 after the home side had taken the batting power play after 32 overs. It meant that they were bowled out with more than two overs unused for 230 rather than the 280 to 300 that had looked on the cards up to that stage.
Tsotsobe started the ball rolling by taking two wickets in successive overs and then Morkel produced an incredible closing burst that saw him take 5/5 in 2.3 overs to finish with career best figures of 5/38 in 9.3 overs. Twice he was on a hat trick and it was the seventh instance of his taking four or more wickets in an ODI innings.
The Proteas lost make shift opener Jacques Kallis early in their reply for just 4 but Amla (92 off 107 balls, 12 fours) set up the successful runs chase with successive partnerships of 69 with Faf du Plessis (34) and 87 with JP Duminy (43), both the latter batsmen scoring with a strike rate comfortably in excess of 100.
Thereafter De Villiers (31') and Justin Ontong (17*) finished the job without taking their combined foots off the pedal.
Graeme Smith, who picked up an arm injury while practising before the first ODI, was not fit to play and this necessitated a re-organisation of the top order with Kallis partnering Amla against the new ball and Du Plessis moving up to No. 3, a position he has occupied for most of his career at schools and first-class level.
De Villiers finished unbeaten on 31 to give him an aggregate of 137 in the series so far without being dismissed. He also completed his 100th dismissal as a fielder/wicketkeeper when he caught Jesse Ryder.
Teams:
New Zealand – RJ Nicol, MJ Guptill, JD Ryder, BJ McCullum (captain/wk), KS Williamson, JEC Franklin, AM Ellis, KD Mills, TG Southee, TS Nethula, AJ McKay.
South Africa - Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers (captain/wk), JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis , Justin Ontong, Albie Morkel, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Robin Peterson, Morne Morkel.
Mini Scorecard:
New Zealand 230 all out (47.3 overs, 4.84rpo)
B McCullum 85 (96) L Tsotsobe 3-43
M Guptill 58 (73) M Morkel 5-38
South Africa 231/4 (38.2 overs, 6.02rpo)
H Amla 92 (107) T Nethula 2-60
JP Duminy 43 (39) A Elis 1-16
South Africa win by 6 wickets
File Photograph Copyright: ICC World T20
The All-India Senior Selection Committee announced a 15-man squad for the 2012 edition of the Asia Cup today and as expected there were more than a couple of eyebrow raising decisions taken. Virat Kohli's recent show of strength in the Australian summer has propelled him to the top of the charts as the man most likely to succeed MS Dhoni as India's next captain with the young Delhi lad named as vice-captain for this tour ahead of stalwarts Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina, who have often taken charge in Dhoni's absence and are more senior to Kohli in the Indian set-up.
India kept their hopes of making the finals of the Commonwealth Bank tri-series alive with an incredible thumping win against Sri Lanka at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart today. India came into this match knowing that they didn't just need to win, but also needed to do so in style to collect a bonus point necessary to prevent their premature exit from the tournament. Sri Lanka were put into bat by India, and made good use of a flat wicket to post an excellent 320/4 from their 50 overs with Tillakaratne Dilshan (160*) and Kumar Sangakkara (105) both stroking superb centuries. India thus needed to get to 321 in just 40 overs, an asking rate of just over 8 an over, an unlikely assignment considering their complete lack of batting form this summer. However, in a game where they had absolutely nothing to lose, the Indian batting fired with Virat Kohli leading the way with an excellent century of his own, making a career best unbeaten 133 from just 86 deliveries. Kohli was well suported by the entire Indian top order with none of the batsmen wasting time in the middle and all of them contributing in excess of 30 runs. Sri Lanka despite this loss can still make the finals at the expense of the Indians by picking up either a win or a tie in their final game of the league stage of the tournament against Australia in Melbourne on Friday. The hosts are already in the Finals, having picked up 19 points from their 7 matches thus far, as compared to 15 each for both India and Sri Lanka.