South Africa vs. New Zealand: Third quarter-final of the ICC World Cup 2011 – Preview
South Africa will take on New Zealand in the third quarter-final of the ICC World Cup 2011 at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/March-c74391, 2011.
The winner of the match will play the winners of the Sri Lanka-England quarter-final in the semi-finals.
The Proteas finished at the top of Group B with 10 points. They won 5 out their 6 matches and lost just one game against England by a narrow margin of 6 runs. Compared to them, the Kiwi team managed a fourth place finish in their group with 8 points.
Although both teams do not have a lot of similarities between them, one common thing in both of them is that they are yet to win a World Cup and have not gone beyond a semi-final stage of the mega event.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 seem the more likely team to make it to the final of the mega event and possibly win it. They have a very good balance when it comes to all-round cricket. They have some world-class batsmen and bowlers. Apart from that, they have the best all-rounders
compared to all other teams of the tournament.
Graeme Smith has led his team very nicely, but he will be looking forward to getting some runs in the knockout stages. The opening batsman has not been in the best of touches, as he failed to shine with the bat during the group stages.
One man who has been scoring runs consistently for the Proteas is Hashim Amla. The stylish opener has the ability to control the pace of the game with the bat. He can rotate the strike and hit boundaries when needed. Apart from that, he is electrifying in
the field.
Jacques Kallis, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Jean-Paul-Duminy-c66758 are a captain’s delight. They are all match winners, as they have the ability to score big runs. Kallis also has the ability to bowl 10 overs for his team regularly, which makes him probably the best all-rounder
of all times.
Apart from Kallis, there are some other threatening all-rounders in the South African team. They have the likes of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Johan-Botha-c67173, who provide flexibility to the team.
Bowling has been one of the biggest strengths of the South African team. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Imran-c64193 Tahir and Lonwabo Tsotsobe have done a good job for the team.
Compared to the mighty South African team, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 have been struggling with form and fitness of their players. Their captain Daniel Vettori and strike bowler Kyle Mills sustained injures during the group matches. However, they will be fit to play the
next game.
Although the Kiwi team will not be a favourite to win Friday’s match, they do have some players who can turn things around for them. Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum have the potential to give a solid start to the team and then players like Jesse Ryder,
Scott Styris and Ross http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taylor-c92915 can covert the start into something significant.
The Black Caps also have some utility all-rounders like Jacob Oram, Nathan McCullum, Styris and Vettori. However, the bowling performance from Tim Southee and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mills-c76321 will be crucial for the team’s chances to advance further in the tournament.
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