Coming off a sumptuous victory in Potchefstroom, it’s now all on the line for the BLACKCAPS in the final match of their African tour.
The Durban decider — Wednesday 10.30pm New Zealand time, watch online — will not only sort out the winner of the One-Day Series in South Africa, it will determine which side takes precedence in the ICC pecking order.
The BLACKCAPS, third in the world rankings behind Australia and India, went into this three-match Series one point ahead of the Proteas in the official Reliance ICC ODI team rankings. The teams are locked at 1-1 heading into tomorrow night’s showdown and if the BLACKCAPS win again, they will extend their rankings buffer over South Africa to two points.
However, if the Proteas bounce back for a 2-1 scoreline, they will not only claim the trophy, but edge ahead of the BLACKCAPS in the rankings.
BLACKCAPS bowling coach Dimitri Mascarenhas says the players are determined to give everything they can to ensure that doesn’t happen.
“It’s a huge game. Decider. Winner take all — it’s a final, in essence,” said Mascarenhas after the team arrived in Durban from Potchefstroom.
“There are going to be different challenges, the wicket is going to be totally different again — so we are going to have to adapt quickly again, and hopefully put in another very good performance.”
The seam bowling attack’s ability to quicky adjust to and capitalise on the slower conditions at ‘Potch’ was a big factor in overcoming the Proteas so comprehensively, and only a regal unbeaten century from Martin Guptill stood in the way of Doug Bracewell claiming match honours with his career-best ODI figures in his first game on tour.
“Milney [Adam Milne] up front bowled beautifully, and Doug coming in for his first game on tour bowled outstandingly well to get 3-31 on that pitch. Doug works hard on and off the field, and to see him come in and perform like that — it was really pleasing for me.
“It wasn’t bouncy, it wasn’t flying through, so we had to go wicket to wicket and the boys adapted straightaway. It was great to see that.”
In Durban where the match-day forecast is for a fine to slightly overcast day with temperatures in the low twenties, Mascarenhas is expecting conditions to be more akin to the Twenty20 International the BLACKCAPS played here earlier on the tour.
“Looking at how the deck played then, if it’s anything like that, it’s going to be another high-scoring game,” he says.
That could set up plenty of intrigue for stats fans, after BLACKCAPS opener Guptill drew level with the injured Ross Taylor in the last match as the only players to have scored four ODI centuries in a calendar year for the team.
Guptill (1277 runs) is also just one tantalising single behind captain Kane Williamson’s tally of ODI runs this calendar year, another BLACKCAPS all-time record. Williamson is sitting on 1278 runs heading into tomorrow, and has three centuries this year together with a few self-sacrifices in the 90s contributing to his handsome haul.
Guptill has also moved ahead of John Wright to second on the list of all-time ODI openers in the run-making department for the BLACKCAPS, Nathan Astle now the only name above his. Remarkably, when 2015 dawned, only one BLACKCAPS batsman had ever passed 1000 runs in a calendar year — Roger Twose in 2000. Now we have four.
Guptill himself was quick to point out that he wasn’t out there on his own in the last match: his opening partner Tom Latham has had a strong tour and played a very composed knock at the other end. Their accrual for the first wicket was a new BLACKCAPS record against the Proteas, breaking the previous mark of 114 that had been set by none other than Latham's father Rod Latham and Mark Greatbach at the 1992 ICC Cricket World Cup in New Zealand.
Guptill’s ninth ODI career century was his maiden against South Africa and Mascarenhas found himself running out of superlatives to describe the impact the graceful striker has made, as a squad missing some of its regular stars has stepped up and performed across the month-long tour.
A win will secure the BLACKCAPS' third ODI Series win on the trot abroad and would be the first time the BLACKCAPS have won back-to-back trophies from visits to South Africa.
The BLACKCAPS want to add to their trophy collection
“Overall we’ve shown a lot of signs of improvement over this tour, and there has been strong competition for places. We have great bowlers here who aren’t playing, Matt Henry who hasn’t played on this South African leg of the tour; Mitch [McClenaghan] missing out last game.
“Then we have the likes of George Worker [a late substitute on the tour for injured spinner Mitch Santner] called in at the last minute in the last game [after Jimmy Neesham sustained a niggle in the warmups] and he sees us home with the bat. It shows the value of the players’ preparation, all of them giving it everything to be part of this team.”
Tomorrow’s final #SAvNZ One-Day International will be livestreamed on the homepage at www.cricket.co.za (free and viewable by New Zealand IP addresses only) with Radio Sport’s free audiostream and livescoring here as usual at www.blackcaps.co.nz from 10.30pm.
