New Zealand makes it to the finals riding on luck - After a month long cup event it all came down to the top 4 of the tournament. The 1st Semi-final match was played in New Zealand with hosts New Zealand and South Africa in action. This match was a high intense one as both the teams had the capability to beat each other. The winners from this match will have the chance of having a shot at the prestigious trophy while the other was to return back home. After winning the toss in this match South Africa decided to bat first.
Batting first they didn’t have the start that they were looking for. Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock lost their wickets up early as South Africa found them at a score of 31/2 in 8th over of the game. Faf du Plessis and Rilee Rossouw had a good partnership between them to take South Africans out of trouble as they took them to a score of 114 in 26 overs. The very next ball saw Rossouw lose his wicket after an innings of 39 runs and that brought AB de Villiers in the match. He along with Plessis scored run at a good pace and raised the run rate. The batting power play started in 35th over and it looked that the team was looking to hit the accelerator when the weather gods played their role as rain poured down. De Villiers was at 60 and Plessis at 82 while South Africa was at 216 in 38 overs. The rain subsided and the match was reduced to 43 overs a side. This gave South Africa 5 overs more in which they managed to score 281 runs. David Miller was the star for the 5 overs as he scored 49 runs off 18 balls.
New Zealand was given a target of 298 to be chased in 43 overs. Brendan McCullum put the chase on fire with his26 balls 59 runs innings. He started off the chase by tearing apart the South African bowlers. In the 7th over he lost his wicket and the Africans were able to control the flow of runs. They also took some wickets to put the lid on the New Zealand as they restricted the team to a total of 149/4 in 22nd over. Corey Anderson and Grant Elliott were on the crease and were looking to rotate the strike. They made sure that the run rate never went high as they continued scoring runs. As the end neared South Africans felt the pressure missing out on catches and run outs and this gave Anderson a chance to score 58 runs. He lost his wicket in the 38th over with New Zealand needing nearly 50 runs. The Africans looked to be coming in command but they dropped the catch of Elliott and that was the end of match as he went on to wins it for New Zealand in the last over. He scored 84 runs as New Zealand went to the finals. It was a match played with high sporting spirit and worthy of a semi-final. Grant Elliott was named as the man of the match.