Thoughts: Another big game for the tournament with the Proteas looking to progress and slowly break the choker’s tag, and New Zealand looking to fight it out. South Africa are favourites and have looked the best side so far in the tournament, but this is a quarter final of the world cup, no mistakes or slip ups this time, the street smart Black Caps will look to catch the clinical South Africans off guard.

South Africa

Group Stage: 1st

Stars Thus Far: AB Devilliers has been the man for South Africa. His batting form has been quite remarkable and his stats back this statement up and a little bit more scoring 318 runs, at an average of 106, including two classy hundreds. Not only does he bat well he is the best fielder in the side and can keep as well, what can’t he do?

Hashim Amla is not far behind AB with 299 runs, who has been in supreme touch in the last 12 months, so much so is ranked 1st in official ICC ODI batsmen rankings.

Although only playing only four games so far in the tournament, the leg spinner Imran Tahir has been a great find for the Proteas. From four matches he has 12 wickets and has caused trouble with his variations, especially the wrong-un delivery.

Strengths: South Africa has almost covered all bases; batting, bowling, fielding. They have immense batting strength with talent such as Amla, Smith, Devilliers, Kallis, and Duminy, who have shown good form.

The bowling is very strong as well with two genuine quicks up front with Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn who are complimented with medium fast Kallis and good spinners such as Tahir, Peterson and Botha, therefore there is a lot of variety.

The reputation of the best fielding side has to be earned and South Africa has proven to be the best fielding side for a long time. They are fit, athletic and enjoy fielding.

Weaknesses: this team is the least flawed side of the world cup. Specific areas can only be seen as weaknesses. A worry is the lower middle order, when South Africa loses a few wickets they rely on Devilliers, and when he exits they seem to struggle with younger members of the team such as Du Plessis and Van Wyk. This was exposed when South Africa crumbled and lost in chasing England’s modest 171 in the group stages.

Key Player For This Game: If fit to play, the new Leggy Imran Tahir could be a hand full for the New Zealand batsmen. He has variety and the Kiwis haven’t faced him before and could struggle on a slow turning pitch.

 

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New Zealand

Group Stage: 4th

Stars Thus Far: With the ball Tim Southee has been the consistent performer for his team. He has 14 wickets in 6 games and looks impressive showing nippy pace and good shape away from the right handed batsmen. Vettori will look to Southee to find the crucial break throughs throughout the innings.

A match winning hundred against Pakistan saw the revival of Ross Taylor. His form was quite bad and not up to his usual standards for a while but found some scintillating touch against Pakistan and has found consistency.

Strengths: The New Zealanders have been very good in the field; they give 100% every time and apply pressure on the opposition. Their mental strength is solid; they don’t have the best side on paper but are street smart and have Vettori who leads so well.

The top order have been somewhat a strength with Guptil in consistent alongside dangerous players such as B. McCullum and Ryder who have shown glimpses of their power.

Weaknesses: The middle order for New Zealand has been shaky and seem to panic after losing the top four and it ends up being Vettori who scraps them to a decent total.

The bowling depth is also a question mark with Southee the only one having any penetration on the opposition, they do not have an out and out attacking bowler who looks for wickets rather they have guys that use defensive tactics which will not go far in winning you the game.

Key Player For This Game: ‘Rosco’ Ross Taylor the best batsmen in the line up has to stand up and score big for New Zealand. It is so crucial he does so that the lack of bowling strength is compensated for. He is in form and lets see if he is a big game player. If he fires he can be devastating, just ask the Pakistanis.
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Prediction

South Africa by 30 runs. The Black Caps will fight as they always do but the strength of the Proteas line up will show in the crunch moments.

 

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Gordon D'Mello

Gordon is a Journalism student at the University of Notre Dame, Sydney who has a huge passion in the field of sports writing and sport itself. Here he is a writer, senior editor and is also a co-founder of Injury Time.