Wednesday, February 22, 2012

South Africa thriller Win the T20 series

Auckland, Feb-22: South Africa battle to a thrilling three-run win over New Zealand to claim the Twenty20 series 2-1 after the Black Caps suffer a dramatic late batting collapse in Auckland match on Wednesday.

New Zealand controlled South Africa to seven for 165 and went into the last 2 over’s needing just 10 runs for victory, only to fall short after losing 3 wickets, including ducks for Nathan McCullum and Doug Bracewell.Adding to the tension, James Franklin and Tim Southee both had chances to take victory at the death off the bowling off Marchant de Lange but could not attach bat with ball.

Franklin needed a 6 off de Lange's last ball but missed, scamper down the wicket for a run as the Proteas great, then realized to their shock that the delivery had been ruled a no ball. That gave Southee the chance to be the hero with a boundary but his air swing went nowhere near the ball, strand New Zealand on seven for 162.

It was a below par end for New Zealand after Jesse Ryder marked his come back from injury with 52 and openers Rob Nicol (33) and Martin Guptill (26) started their run chase brightly. But the result was also witness to South Africa's never-say-die position after man-of-the match Johan Botha selected up the vital wickets of Guptill and Ryder to swing the match their way.

It was an amazing team effort, Am really proud of the men, captain AB de Villiers said. We hung on at the end there."De Villiers admit South Africa lost momentum when batting first and he was unsure if 165 runs would be sufficient on the short boundaries at Eden Park.JP Duminy top scored for the tourist on 38 and there were decent help from Hashim Amla (33) and AB de Villiers (29).

But the Proteas never fired and needed a 22-run came from tail-ender Wayne Parnell to edging them towards a competitive total. New Zealand's top main concern early in the innings was to defuse the threat from opener Richard Levi, fresh from a record-breaking winning 117 in the second match, in which he smashed 13 sixes and scored a 45-ball century.

The danger man helped himself to one six from Michael Bates but was dismiss for 11 trying for a 2nd off the next ball, weakness to get enough power onto his attempt and sending the ball marine to Nicol.Nicol was the stand-out performer for New Zealand, taking two wickets and 2 catches as well as being implicated in a run out.

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