SA vs New Zealand: Proteas’ dream fades in yet another semifinal loss

SA’s dreadful playoff record continued as they slumped to a 50-run defeat in Wednesday’s Champions Trophy semifinal against New Zealand.

The Black Caps head to Dubai and a date with India in Sunday’s final, while the Proteas will take another flight home, with an ICC title eluding them for another year.

It was a largely limp batting performance from Temba Bavuma’s men after a fielding display that lacked intent and bowling that was, by comparison to New Zealand’s, untidy.

The Kiwis racked up 362/6 thanks to centuries from Kane Williamson and Rachin Ravindra followed by late innings pyrotechnics from Daryl Mitchell and Glenn Phillips which saw their side score 66 runs off the last five overs.

That period proved to be the major turning point, because it took New Zealand to a total that allowed them to create pressure from the beginning of SA’s run chase.

The early dismissal of in-form Ryan Rickelton was a good example of New Zealand’s good strategising, combined with perfect execution.

Bavuma, who missed SA’s last match against England with illness and hadn’t batted since the opening game against Afghanistan two weeks ago, took time to find his rhythm, which raised the required scoring rate.

He got his innings going with a boundary off his 19th delivery and in partnership with Rassie van der Dussen, was able to match the rate at which Williamson and Ravindra batted. The trouble of course was sustaining that, which Bavuma, who got bogged down by New Zealand’s spinners after reaching 50, couldn’t.

After a partnership of 105, he was outfoxed by the wily Mitchell Santner, who having created pressure with Michael Bracewell, induced a horrible drive from the Proteas skipper, with a thick outside edge floating to Williams at backward point.

Santner was outstanding and flummoxed Van der Dussen, who had scored 69 off 66 balls, with a beautiful delivery that angled into the right hander, and with the batter aiming to turn the ball on the leg-side, it spun past the edge and crashed into middle stump.

Days after talking about being the best player in the world, Heinrich Klaasen, who dropped Williams earlier in the day when he had 56, then deposited Santner into Matt Henry’s hands at long-on after scoring three, heralding a procession that saw SA lose six wickets for 57 runs in 12.4 overs.

David Miller’s seventh ODI century — his second in an ICC tournament semifinal — was in vain.

New Zealand once again showed an attention to detail allied to execution that was lacking from SA, in what for both sides was the biggest match of their respective tournaments.

The toss was important, with Santner understandably choosing to bat, on a surface which in the afternoon offered very little assistance for the bowlers. While there was some extra seam movement under lights when New Zealand bowled, SA found nothing and had to rely on changes of pace to trouble the Kiwi batters.

Lungi Ngidi produced his best performance in a few years and though figures of 3/72 suggest he was expensive he also created two other chances — the most notable being Williamson which Klaasen diving to his right, missed.

Kagiso Rabada, was just all right, but didn’t do enough to affect the game, Marco Jansen, again in a big match, lacked consistency and while Keshav Maharaj provided control, he wasn’t a threat in the manner of Santner.

Ravindra faced 101 balls for his 108, hitting 13 fours and one six, continuing a magnificent set of performances in ICC ODI tournaments, with Wednesday’s his fifth century in his second 50-over competition.

Williamson continued a love affair with SA, reaching his third consecutive ODI hundred against the Proteas. His previous two were the unbeaten 106 in Birmingham, that effectively knocked the Proteas out of the 2019 World Cup, and his 133* at the Gaddafi Stadium last month beat them in the Triangular series.

It was a beautifully constructed innings, in which the acceleration in the second half was perfectly timed.

Having taken 61 balls to reach 50, it took the little right hander a further 30 deliveries to get to 100, as he unfurled some reverse sweeps against Aiden Markram’s off-spin, and when the seam bowlers delivered full and straight, played the scoop over the wicketkeeper’s head.

Alongside the greater intensity with which they played, it was Williamson and Santner, New Zealand’s best two players, who produced their finest in the match that mattered.