What a match! If life is always a matter of waiting for the right moment to act, no stage is better than the 2015 World Cup semi-final. The show of strength doesn’t coming after winning all the league matches, it comes from winning when it matters the most. At least, New Zealand proved it against South Africa at the Eden Park in Auckland that the real strength comes from real hard work and the decision not to surrender.
After having won the toss and opted to bat, South Africa finished their rain-truncated innings on a high with a score of 281 at the loss of five wickets from 43 overs, and, in reply, New Zealand were to achieve a revised target of 298 by Duckworth Lewis method.
Thanks to Grant Elliott’s grand show of 84 not out that saw New Zealand winning the semi-final match by four wickets with one ball to spare. He was also named the man-of-the-match. He played 73 balls (7X4, 3X6) to make those valuable runs for his team. There were a few run-out opportunities and a few dropped chances, which the South Africans missed and a few of them became the defining moments of the match.
The match-winning partnership between Elliott and Corey Anderson (58 off 57 balls) of 103 runs for the fifth wicket was the turning point of the match. Even Elliott’s 30-run stand with Daniel Vettori that sealed the match in favour of the home team was also very crucial.
It was match that went down to the wire. Till the last over, South Africa were in the match. New Zealand needed 12 runs to win the match and even a tie would have seen them playing the final. South African pacer Dale Steyn bowled a dot ball and Elliott charged towards through to claim the strike. The second ball went for single, which got Vettori into the strike.
Thereafter, the South African pacer was down with a niggling pain on his leg. Still, he came to bowl and delivered a Yorker. Experienced Vettori opens the face the bat and the ball goes for a boundary. In the very next ball, Elliott came back into strike and did what the New Zealand fans were expecting them to do. He cracked a six off Steyn and ended South Africa’s 2015 World Cup dream.
New Zealand had beaten South Africa in Bangladesh during a quarterfinal match of the 2011 World Cup. Four years later, it was a repeat show. New Zealand entered the final of the World Cup for the first time in the history of the game. New Zealand played the World Cup semi-finals six times before this game and had lost all of them.
Lots of credit would go to New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum – the way he started the chase. He started hitting the ball and shared a rapid opening wicket partnership with Martin Guptill of 71 from 37 balls. This rousing start to their innings kept New Zealand on the hunt.
On the other hand, South Africa did what they could do to win the match. They lost two early wicket, but that didn’t dampen the spirit of Faf du Plessis (82 off 107 balls) and de Villiers (65 off 45 deliveries). They also shared a 103-run partnership and this was followed by another quick partnership of 55 runs ball between David Miller and the South African captain that took their score.
Just when South Africa was looking to send New Zealand bowler on a leather hunt, rain stopped play. Indeed, South Africa were looking at score close to 350. With the ball, Imran Tahir again lived up to the expectations. He was ably supported by Morne Morkel, who took three wickets to his credit. But he broke down the moment New Zealand hit the winning runs. It would take a few weeks for these South Africans to get over this shocking defeat. They got so close yet it was too far. They still choke.
In the first ten over of the chase, if Tahir was responsible for applying brakes on New Zealand scoring in the first ten overs, Morkel took those early wickets to put pressure back on the hosts. McCullum was first to go and then the run-out of previous match hero Martin Guptill put the home team under a lot pressure.
There were a quite a few partnerships that enabled New Zealand to keep the momentum going. A run-out chance of Corey Anderson in the thirties could have changed a few things, but it was not meant to be. The Eden Park crowd started chanting in favour of their team, but it was always a touch and go situation.
