New Zealand v South Africa, Third ODI, Wellington – Preview
New Zealand came out hard to break South Africa’s winning streak in the second One-Day International of their five-match series in Christchurch on Wednesday, and when the third game is played in Wellington on Saturday (February 25), the teams will be desperate to take the crucial lead.
Tim Southee, especially, has fond memories of the Westpac, where he has 23 wickets from seven ODIs, including a 7 for 33 against England at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. Against a South African batting order that had found many heroes during a 12-match winning run but appeared to lose some wickets to loose shots in the Christchurch game, Southee, as well as the other New Zealand bowlers, will be excited about their chances.
“It's great to be involved in games that go down to the wire and as a death bowler it's something you look forward to,” he said after the second game. “Not every time it's going to come off but when it does it's very satisfying. It just shows the evenness between two quality sides both going at it.”
That the two are both quality sides is beyond doubt, but South Africa is as good as it is – the No. 1 in the ICC ODI team rankings – because of its consistency, boosted by the recent return to action of AB de Villiers. And it remains favourite going into the third game. While a top-order stutter cost it the game the other day, Dwaine Pretorius’s emergence as a potential all-rounder was a positive.
The other good news for South Africa is that Kagiso Rabada is available again after missing the second match with a knee injury. If he returns, Wayne Parnell could well have to make way.
The difference in Christchurch was that Ross Taylor, on his way to a New Zealand record 17th ODI ton, anchored the innings. No South African did it in quite the same way in its reply.
“We bat to No. 10 but the top five and top six still have to take the responsibility to be there at the end and two of us got in – Quinton (de Kock) and myself – and not one of us took it through. If one of us was there at the end, it would have been a different result,” agreed de Villiers prior to the third game.
From New Zealand’s point of view, Tom Latham will be trying to rediscover his form after scores of 7, 0, 0 and 2 in his last four ODIs, while Dean Brownlie needs to do more with his starts. Kane Williamson has been in good form, while Taylor’s resurgence is great news for the team as well. Neil Broom’s up-and-down run, though, has affected the middle order and this will be an ideal opportunity for him to make an impact.
The pitch at the Westpac has a reputation of being friendly towards seamers, which means New Zealand will have to make a tough call between Ish Sodhi and Matt Henry, though with two good all-round men in Jimmy Neesham and Colin de Grandhomme, the two-spinner plan can still work.
More than any of that, of course, it’s yet another chance for the two teams to get closer to identifying their first-choice XIs in the lead up to the ICC Champions Trophy later this year, and that might well be the prime focus even if neither team will want to notch up a loss in the process.
Teams (from)
New Zealand: Kane Williamson (capt), Trent Boult, Neil Broom, Dean Brownlie, Colin de Grandhomme, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, James Neesham, Luke Ronchi (wk), Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor.
South Africa: AB de Villiers (capt), Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock (wk), JP Duminy, David Miller, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, Chris Morris, Wayne Parnell, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dane Paterson, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi.
