At the International level, South Africa played its first T20 match against New Zealand at Johannesburg on Oct 21 2005 when New Zealand visited South Africa in 2005. Graeme Smith was the captain of South Africa and Stephen Fleming was leading the New Zealand squad. The New Zealand captain invited the opposition team to bat first after winning the toss.
Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis stepped out to the middle to open the bat and Shane Bond was given the new ball in hand. South Africa got a very good start and they completed their first 50 runs in 5.2 overs without losing any wicket. Both the openers had built 84 runs in pairs for the first wicket and had already dominated the New Zealand bowling attack in the first 9 overs.
Then Nathan Astle in 9.4 overs got the first breakthrough for New Zealand by taking the wicket of Graeme Smith. Graeme Smith played amazingly and scored 61 runs from 43 balls. After the dismissal of Smith, Herschelle Gibbs joined Kallis, but in the very next over, Jeetan Patel took the wicket of Kallis. New Zealand bowlers did not stop there and kept taking the wicket at regular intervals.
Jeetan Patel sent back Gibbs also in his next over, on the other hand, Castle also disturbed the South African batsman. South Africa could not come out of the pressure and the entire squad was demolished at a total of 133 runs in 19.23 overs. South Africa was 84 without any loss, then within the next 49 runs, they lost all their 10 wickets. New Zealand Nathan Astle, Jeetan Patel took 3 wickets each, Shane Bond dismissed 2 wickets and one wicket for Andre Adams. New Zealand got the target of 134 runs to win the match within 20 overs.
New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming and Nathan Astle came out to the middle to chase the target and Shaun Pollock got the new ball in hand to open the attack. New Zealand did not have any pressure as the target was not big, so they started very comfortably.
On the other hand, South Africa wanted some early wickets to build pressure on the Kiwis. South Africa got the first breakthrough in 5.1 overs when Andre Nel was sent back by Nathan Astle for 10, then he took another wicket of Hamish Marshall in the same over.
In the very next over, they lost Stephen Fleming also, 3 quick wickets within 9 runs, that was what South Africa was looking for. Scott Styris and Jacob Oram handled the situation and as the target was not big so they just needed a couple of small partnerships. Scott Styris’s 24 runs and Jacob Oram’s not out 23 runs helped New Zealand to achieve the target very handy in 18 overs with 12 balls remaining. Andre Nel, Charl Langeveldt got 2 wickets each and Nicky Boje took 1 wicket in the match.
New Zealand bowlers, especially Jeetan Patel and Nathan Astle performed very well and brought New Zealand back into the match. Jeetan Patel was the Man of the Match for his outstanding bowling performance.
Result: New Zealand won by 5 wickets. Scorecard