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New Zealand v South Africa – 3rd T20I – Match recap – South Africa win by 3 runs to secure series win

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New Zealand v South Africa – 3rd T20I – Match recap – South Africa win by 3 runs to secure series win
South Africa won their T20I series against New Zealand, 2-1, after an intense bowling effort enabled them to emerge triumphant in the last match of the series, played at Eden Park, Auckland, February 22, 2012.
New Zealand won the toss and elected to field, owing, as captain Brendon McCullum explained at the toss report, to the rainy conditions.
Richard Levi and Hashim Amla opened the innings for South Africa. Expectations were high where Levi was concerned, after the 24-year-old’s match-winning 117 knock in the previous game. Amla, who had been kept relatively quite in the opening bouts, was also
looking to raise the bar.
While the elder batsman managed a respectable 33 off 22 balls, before succumbing to Doug Bracewell, the young right-hander was not so successful. After hitting a six and four, his innings ended prematurely after Rob Nicol took a well judged catch, while
running towards deep backward square leg off James Franklin, to send the opener back to the pavilion on 11.
A reshuffle in the batting order saw Albie Morkel coming in at no.3 but the all-rounder contributed a mere 10-runs to the total, before being dismissed by Tim Southee.
It was then left to the 4th wicket pairing of  South African skipper, AB de Villiers, and left-hander Jean-Paul Duminy, who teamed up for a successful partnership, which propelled their side to 121 for 4. Both fell in quick succession off Nicol,
as the former mistimed a slog sweep and was cleaned up, while the latter being run out.
The lower order performed satisfactorily, with Wayne Parnell (22) and Robin Peterson (11) remaining not out at the end of the 20 overs, as the Proteas posted a healthy total of 165 for 7 on the board.
The Kiwi bowlers did a laudable job of stemming the run flow. Southee, who was unable to contribute much to the team in the last match (despite having taken 3 wickets in the first T20), finally found his groove, taking 2 scalps at the expense of 22 runs
in the 4 overs. Bracewell’s 4 overs went for 28 but he managed to bowl out the intimidating Amla – his first wicket of the series. Spinner Rob Nicol also succeeded in earning 2 scalps, and further proving his worth through some excellent display in the field.
 
The host team stepped up to the crease to chase what seemed to be an achievable target, but they did not count on the Proteas bowling attack, featuring medium-pacer Marchant de Lange, spinner Johan Botha and fast bowler Morne Morkel.
New Zealand’s innings got off to a steady start, with Nicol (33) and Martin Guptill (26) establishing a successful opening partnership which yielded 65 runs, before the openers fell in back to back overs. Overall it proved to be a disappointing day for the
inform opening batsmen of the respective teams.
Brendon McCullum (18), Kane Williamson (6), and James Franklin (9) were unable to contribute much to the total, however Jesse Ryder made a spectacular comeback, scoring 52 off 42 balls to keep the target, below run a ball. His dismissal in the 19th
over, where the left-hander fell prey to the merciless Botha meant that their opponents had given themselves an outside chance of claiming an unlikely win.
As 7 runs were required from the final six balls, with Nathan McCullum and Bracewell at the crease, de Villiers made a risky choice of trusting the 21-year-old de Lange (playing the third T20 of his career) with the task of restricting the Kiwi batsmen.
The decision ultimately paid off when the pacer held his nerves to concede just 3, while taking two  consecutive wickets (Nathan McCullum, and Bracewell), and cut the Kiwis off at the finish.
South Africa’s Johan Botha won the Player of the Match award, for his aggressive bowling, returning with impressive match figures of 4-0-20-2.
After their exciting series win, de Villiers’ squad will undoubtedly be looking to repeat their performance in the upcoming ODI series, scheduled to kick off on February 25, at the Westpac Stadium, Wellington.