South Africa: 271/8 (De Villiers 85, De Kock 68, Parnell 35; De Grandhomme 2/40)
New Zealand: 112 (De Grandhomme 34*, Pretorius 3/5, Phehlukwayo 2/12, Parnell 2/33)
* South Africa won by 159 runs, lead series 2-1
Earlier in this New Zealand tour, Proteas batting consultant Neil McKenzie said South Africa were still searching for “the perfect game”. On Saturday at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington, the tourists delivered.
After an indifferent outing in the second ODI in Christchurch earlier in the week when the Proteas surrendered their 12-game unbeaten streak, AB de Villiers’s side responded immediately with a clinical performance to take a 2-1 lead with two matches to play in the series.
“It was a great team performance, it was what we emphasised on,” De Villiers enthused. “I didn’t feel that presence in the last games but we did this time. Don’t know how we got to 270, but we did and we won.”
A lot of the talk after the Hagley Oval defeat was about senior players “taking responsibility” and De Villiers took it upon himself to lead the way. The ODI skipper showed plenty of restraint during his 80-ball innings on a tricky Westpac pitch.
With seam movement on offer throughout the match, De Villiers constructed a solid 85 (7x4, 1x6) to ensure the Proteas would post a decent total. De Villiers went to 9 000 ODI runs in the process in 23 innings quicker than the previous record holder Sourav Ganguly.
“Always very nervous, always fear getting out. It’s just human. We started losing a few wickets, and I thought we were looking at 160-180 here, which wouldn’t have been enough.
“But over the years I’ve learnt to counter that. It comes through experience, learning from mistakes and a deep hunger to succeed. There’s nothing like contributing to the team, making hundreds, and seeing the smiles on my teammates’ faces,” the skipper said.
It was required for South Africa as they had lost their way after Quinton de Kock (68) struck yet another half-century while adding 73 for the second wicket with Faf du Plessis (36).
But with JP Duminy running himself out, followed shortly afterwards by David Miller and Dwaine Pretorius, there was every chance South Africa’s innings could disintegrate.
However, De Villiers found an able partner in Wayne Parnell. The all-rounder has immense batting potential, typified by his exploits for the Cape Cobras on the domestic circuit, but has not translated it regularly to the international scene.
Inspired by his fellow all-rounders’ performances thus far on tour with a shoot-out fast developing between the quartet, Parnell (pictured) showed good judgement during his 32-ball 35 (2x4, 1x6).
He provided the support De Villiers required as the pair added 84 runs off just 64 deliveries for the seventh-wicket.
Parnell took the momentum gained from his batting into his bowling efforts and was right on the money from the outset. He created early pressure with the new ball before striking when Black Caps opener Tom Latham hit a sweetly-timed square drive, but the left-hander, who is going through a horrible run of form, found Duminy at point.
With spearhead Kagiso Rabada also back in the line-up for Chris Morris, that was the opening the impressive Proteas bowling unit required.
There was no let-up in the pressure after Latham’s dismissal, with the only blemish being Hashim Amla’s dropped catch at slip. New Zealand captain Kane Williamson was the benefactor and Parnell the unlucky bowler.
However, even that missed chance did not cost South Africa a great deal on the night with Andile Phehlukwayo clean-bowling the Black Caps skipper for 23 shortly afterwards.
Photo: Chris Ricco/BackpagePix
All resistance crumbled after that as South Africa’s battery of seamers exploited the conditions perfectly. Pretorius was once again the chief-destroyer, bowling wicket-to-wicket, to maintain the pressure on the Kiwi middle-order.
He rightfully closed the game by picking up the last Black Caps wicket to fall to finish with the incredible figures of 3/5 in 5.2 overs.
Pretorius was well supported by Rabada (2/39), Parnell (2/33) and Phehlukwayo (2/12) with leg-spinner Imran Tahir also chipping in with one wicket.
“We had a nice discussion before we went out. I asked for a lot of energy and felt the inner ring was really difficult to pierce. We saved a lot of ones there,” De Villiers said.
“I didn’t expect it to do that much. I felt it was a difficult wicket to play on, I never felt in. I don’t think it did more in the second innings, we just did well, we caught our catches and created more chances.”