Key events
17th over: New Zealand 94-1 (Ravindra 46, Williamson 25) Time for spin as Keshav Maharaj comes into the attack. He bowled 10 overs on the trot against England in a spell of 2-35. He starts down leg and Ravindra sweeps for one. Williamson gets one as well through the covers. One more to Ravindra between three dots. Handy start from the spinner.
16th over: New Zealand 91-1 (Ravindra 44, Williamson 24) After a drinks break Ravindra forces a front-foot pull off Mulder and gets two towards cow corner. Williamson gets a quick single to point and Ravindra gets one to long-on to keep the strike. They look in full control with the willow.
15th over: New Zealand 87-1 (Ravindra 41, Williamson 23) Class from Kane as he leans into a leg stump half volley and clips it through midwicket for four. Rare dross from Rabada. He over corrects with a drag down and Williamson pulls for two more out in the deep. In a flash his strike rate has climbed into the 80s. Two more off his pads. Rabada moves his line outside the off stump where Williamson steers a single down to deep third. Ominous signs for the Proteas at drinks.
14th over: New Zealand 77-1 (Ravindra 40, Williamson 14) Mulder does well to keep Williamson quiet for a bit. The former skipper gets a single but is 12 off 22. Ravindra decides to break the shackles and comes down the track and spanks a boundary over midwicket before collecting a single of his own down the ground. A slower ball bumper is called wide and Williamson nudge the extra ball off his pads for two. Two singles elsewhere means it’s a relatively expensive set worth 10 runs.
13th over: New Zealand 67-1 (Ravindra 34, Williamson 11) A maiden from Ngidi who kept Williamson on strike, which is not easy given his ability to rotate strike. Tight lines, straight fields and a couple of slower balls the recipe there.
12th over: New Zealand 67-1 (Ravindra 34, Williamson 11) Mulder, a contender for most improved bowler in international cricket, starts with a tidy set, tight lines and a good length. Ravindra spoons a couple towards the leg side before the pair collect a single each.
11th over: New Zealand 63-1 (Ravindra 31, Williamson 10) Rabada finds a genuine edge off Williamson’s bat. He was trying to dab it to deep third but it goes much finer, just short of the keeper in fact, and runs away for four. I still think a slip would be a shout. Three singles elsewhere means the Kiwis are going great guns so far.
10th over: New Zealand 56-1 (Ravindra 29, Williamson 5) Ngidi has done well to tighten up since that loose stuff early on. Angling in to the right handed Williamson, he’s offering no width while also varying his pace. Sharp fielding at backward point from Markram as well as cover-point by Miller keep the dot balls ticking. But Williamson won’t be denied. The final ball is a good one, but not good enough to stop Kane from standing tall and driving on the up for four through the gap.
9th over: New Zealand 51-1 (Ravindra 28, Williamson 1) Rabada into the attack and as you’d expect from one of the greats, he finds his line and length right away. Just three singles of that first set, including a healthy edge off Ravindra’s bat that trickles down to deep third. Might be worth having a slip in place for KG.
8th over: New Zealand 48-1 (Ravindra 26, Williamson 0) The Kiwis were off the flyer, one that reminded me of their dashing start in the 2015 World Cup when Baz McCullum plundered 59 off 26 balls against the Saffas in that classic semi-final. But Ngidi got his man and the men in green are back in the game.
WICKET! Young c Markram b Ngidi 21 (New Zealand 48-1)
Slower ball does the trick! Ngidi has one of the best disguised cutters in the game and this one bags the breakthrough. Rolled his fingers across the ball and Young decides to take in on. He gets a lot of wood on it but skies it straight up to mid-off where Markram pouches it. South Africa needed that.
7th over: New Zealand 44-0 (Young 18, Ravindra 25) Three boundaries off the over for Ravindra and each shot was better than the last. He started off by lashing Jansen through the covers. Then a nonchalant flick off his hips through midwicket. Then a punch wide of mid-off. Just brilliant batting.
6th over: New Zealand 30-0 (Young 17, Ravindra 12) Better from Ngidi. Tighter line and fuller length. A couple of slower balls too, the first two of the innings. One, a 112 km/h cutter, squirts towards midwicket but finds space and Ravindra collects a single.
5th over: New Zealand 29-0 (Young 17, Ravindra 11) Brilliant fielding at square leg from a diving van der Dussen saves three runs off another crunching pull shot from Ravindra. But there’s no stopping Young’s pull that finds the big gap behind square on the leg side. The South Africans haven’t found the length yet. Too short and it’s easy pickings on this good deck.
4th over: New Zealand 21-0 (Young 10, Ravindra 10) Boundaries to bookend this Ngidi over. First Young steered another loose ball through backward point off the front foot. Then Ravindra showed his class with a lovely flick off the pads – all balance and timing – to take four through midwicket. New Zealand’s openers look in good touch.
3rd over: New Zealand 12-0 (Young 5, Ravindra 6) The first boundary comes off a mighty pull from Ravindra, who rode the bounce of Jansen to smoke it through square leg. That was a top shot! He collected two via a misfield in the covers, though that was crunched as well so Miller perhaps deserves some slack for taking the sting out of it.
2nd over: New Zealand 6-0 (Young 5, Ravindra 0) Ngidi from the other end. Not Rabada. The burly bowler is hitting a shortish length hard and Young flashes at some width, catching it with a thick outside edge that flies over Jansen at first slip for four. Another shortish, wideish one invites the cut but Young can’t get enough on it ti pierce the infield.
1st over: New Zealand 2-0 (Young 1, Ravindra 0) Young gets an inside edge and a single down to fine leg off the first ball. Jansen then lands a great bouncer that has Ravindra ducking. A wide down the leg side adds one to the score but that’s a good start from the South African beanpole.
One of my favourite writers, Andrew Fidel Fernando of Cricinfo fame, has this to say on X:
I hope, today, NZ and South Africa put on a semi final for the ages in Lahore. I hope it is a match the city will revel in. The cricket world is increasingly unkind, held to ransom by the lowest impulses of South Asian geopolitics, and now a near-slavish worship of commerce.
Nuff said.
Slight delay (aaaargh!!!). A problem with the sightscreen. Some of the black sheet covering the white grandstand has blown sideways.
A slip and a leg slip in place.
OK, furniture sorted, away we go!
Anthems are done. A very sparse crowd in attendance. Hopefully it’ll fill up but I won’t hold my breath.
New Zealand’s openers are sauntering to the wicket, shadow batting and stretching as they do so.
The two-metre tall Marco Jansen will get us underway with the ball.
Deck looks good. Expect runs.
From a 35-year-old Saffa, to a 25-year-old Kiwi.
It’s now Rachin Ravindra’s turn to get a glowing segment on Sky.
He calls ODI cricket the “pinnacle”. Too right. I’m a big fan.
The lad’s a gun! He’s got four tons and four 50s from 31 games in this format. Getting him early will be key for the South Africans.
Our first correspondence is from a Kiwi, Alistair Connor:
Hi Daniel
As a Kiwi I breathed a sigh of relief yesterday when India eliminated Australia, because … there is a profound cultural problem there. Hope it goes away one day, and I will be able to look forward to an Aus/NZ final.
I have no such fear of South Africa, not out of disrespect for a very talented team. But they have their own demons.
David Miller is getting a big segment on Sky’s coverage.
One of the greatest South African cricketers. Ever. I’ll die on that hill.
In terms of cricket tragedies, Miller never playing a Test match is right up there.
Teams
New Zealand are unchanged from the team that lost to India.
NZ: Ravindra, Young, Williamson, Mitchell, Latham (wk), Phillips, Bracewell, Santner (c), Henrym Jamieson, O’Rourke.
Just one change for the Saffas as the skipper returns to open the batting in place of Tristan Stubbs.
SA: Bavuma (c), Rickelton, van der Dussen, Markram, Klaasen, Miller, Muder, Jansen, Maharaj, Rabada, Ngidi.
New Zealand win the toss and bat first
It didn’t work for Australia yesterday, but we’re on a different deck, at a different ground, in a different country.
Mitch Santner says, “It looks like a good wicket, there shouldn’t be dew. It’s a privilege to captain the country, we know what to expect in these conditions.
SA’s captain, the fit again Temba Bavuma, says, “We weren’t too concerned. We would’ve preferred to bat. But we’ll have to start well.”
Some big news this morning!
One of the greats, Steve Smith as retired from ODI cricket.
He’s doing this to prolong his Test career.
He’s calling time at 170 ODI matches where he plundered 5,800 runs at an average of 43.28.
Preamble
So, who will meet India in the Champions Trophy final on Sunday?
The South African Proteas, unbeaten so far and possessing a formidable bowling arsenal and a batting unit in form? Or the New Zealand Black Caps, forever punching above their weight with a team that is more than the sum of its parts?
On paper, you’d think the Saffas should have this wrapped up, but this is an ICC knockout game, and we all know how those tend to go for the men in green and gold.
South Africa enjoy a 42-26 head-to-head record against New Zealand but the one that sticks in my memory is the 2015 World Cup semi-final, where Grant Elliott clobbered Dale Steyn for six in the last over to secure a remarkable victory. Oh, what about the quarterfinal in Mirpur when the Proteas (not for the first, or last time) managed to bottle a run chase from a winning position.
The Proteas will be keen to shift the narrative today.
Will do they do? We’ll find out together.
Do write in if you’ve got some thoughts.
I’ll be back later with the toss and team news.
First ball at 9am GMT.