THE Oxigen Proteas produced their best death bowling performance for a very long time to set up a comfortable six-wicket victory over New Zealand with 13 balls to spare in the first KFC T20 International match at Sahara Stadium Kingsmead on Friday.
New Zealand, having been put into bat, made a runaway start when they scored 56 without loss in the six Powerade powerplay overs and followed that up with 62 runs in the next eight overs. At that stage a total in the region of 170 to 180 looked on target as they had seven wickets in hand.
But the Proteas then closed out the innings by taking five wickets for 33 runs in the last six overs to leave themselves having to make a very gettable 152 runs when it came to their turn to bat.
David Wiese (2/24) and Man-of-the-Match, Aaron Phangiso (2/29) were the key bowlers in getting the game back for the Proteas while Kagiso Rabada took two wickets in two balls in the penultimate over which left him on the brink of getting his second international hat trick in the space of a handful of matches.
Phangiso probably bowled the delivery of the match when he deceived New Zealand captain, Kane Williamson, with a superbly flighted effort that resulted in a stumping. Williamson had made 42 off only 21 balls (8 fours) and looked like taking the game away from South Africa.
The other main contributor to New Zealand’s fine start was Martin Guptill (42 off 37 balls, 5 fours) who succumbed to a careless bit of running.
The Proteas reply was built around the second wicket partnership of 50 between Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers followed by the 59 between Amla and Rilee Rossouw. The latter were both dismissed when the Proteas only needed a handful of runs with Amla making top score of 48 (41 balls, 4 fours and a six) and Rossouw a highly entertaining 38 (20 balls, 4 fours and 2 sixes).
Adam Milne, who bowled at impressive pace, was the pick of the New Zealand attack.
The Proteas suffered a late setback before the start when Faf du Plessis had to withdraw with a knee injury, meaning that AB de Villiers took over the captaincy and Morne van Wyk filled the top order vacancy and also took over the wicketkeeping gloves.
The second match will be played at SuperSport Park on Sunday.
