New Zealand hammered home their status as World Cup dark horses with an emphatic win. PHOTO: AFP
New Zealand will head into their opening cricket World Cup encounter on Saturday oozing confidence after they completed their preparations with a 134-run victory over South Africa on Wednesday.
Brendon McCullum’s side have emerged as third favourites for the February 14-March 29 tournament, behind Australia and AB de Villiers’ side, after a run of good performances at home over the last month.
Kane Williamson top scored for the World Cup co-hosts with 66 from 53 balls while McCullum blasted 59 from 45 deliveries in their score of 331-8 off 50 overs.
New Zealand’s bowlers then ripped through South Africa’s top order, reducing them to 31-4 in the seventh over and 62-6 in the 14th at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch before JP Duminy and Vernon Philander combined for some batting practice.
They put on 121 runs with Duminy scoring 80, while pace bowler Philander scored 57, but the pair seemed more content to bat out the overs rather than chase down the total and South Africa were eventually dismissed for 197 in 44.2 overs.
“We are not too fazed about the result. It’s about time in the middle, and overs under the belt,” said Duminy.
Left-arm seamer Trent Boult took three of the first four wickets before he finished with 5-51 from 9.2 overs, while wily left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori dismissed world record holder De Villiers for 24 and Wayne Parnell for four to finish with 2-29 from seven overs.
Boult said the game helped his chances of selection for a starting spot on Saturday when New Zealand open their World Cup campaign at home to 1996 champions Sri Lanka.
“There’s a good amount of competition amongst us bowlers. I enjoyed today, it was coming out well at both ends of the wicket,” said Boult.
“We wanted to get the most out of the opportunity.”
Both sides, who were allowed to use all 15 players in their squads, treated the match as a final contested training run, with South African spearhead Dale Steyn not bowling at all.
New Zealand’s Tom Latham took over the wicketkeeping gloves from Luke Ronchi, who did bat in the Kiwis’ innings.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 12th, 2015.
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