Kane Williamson’s unbeaten ton powers New Zealand home in thriller against South Africa

Agencies
June 20, 2019

Birmingham, Jun 20: Skipper Kane Williamson struck a composed unbeaten century as New Zealand virtually knocked South Africa out of the World Cup with a four-wicket victory in a last over finish in Birmingham on Wednesday.

Chasing a target of 242 in 49 overs in rain-truncated match, New Zealand recovered from a mini slump at 137/5 riding on a 91-run stand between Williamson (103 not out off 138 balls) and Collin de Grandhomme (60 off 47 balls) to reach home with three balls to spare.

Needing 12 off last seven balls, Williamson steered a Lungi Ngidi slower delivery to third man boundary to bring down the equation to 8 off the last over.

With Ngidi (1/47), Kagiso Rabada (1/42) and Chris Morris (3/49) all bowling their full quota, Faf Du Plessis had no option but to use their weakest link Andile Phehlukwayo.

Williamson promptly hit the second delivery for his first six of the match to close the encounter.

With this win, New Zealand went top of points table with nine points from five games while South Africa after their fourth defeat in six games have little chance of making it to the last four.

Williamson’s innings had eight fours and a six, while De Grandhomme was the aggressor during the stand with five fours and two sixes.

The Black Caps’ skipper was on 76 when he got a faint edge to a ball by leg-spinner Imran Tahir that Quinton de Kock took behind the stumps but South Africa took no action.

That decision could prove fatal to their tournament hopes, with the Proteas now needing a miracle to progress to the semi-finals after just one win from six matches, while New Zealand now top the 10-team table.

Earlier, Martin Guptill, who had been guiding New Zealand towards their target of 242 off a rain-reduced 49 overs with a minimum of fuss, trod on his stumps to spark a mini collapse.

The batsman, on 35, pulled Phehlukwayo and ended up swivelling, only to lose his balance and clip his leg stump with his foot.

Two overs later New Zealand slipped to 74/3 when Ross Taylor tickled a Chris Morris leg-side delivery and De Kock took the catch behind the stumps. Tom Latham’s dismissal left them struggling at 80/4.

Jimmy Neesham (23) steadied the ship with his skipper but when he was out, New Zealand were back in trouble at 137-5.

Colin de Grandhomme came to New Zealand’s rescue, batting positively and bringing up his fifty off 39 balls but when he was caught in the deep for 60 by Du Plessis off Lungi Ngidi, Kiwi nerves were jangling again.

Eight were still needed off the final over.

But Mitchell Santner pinched a single and Williamson kept his nerve, bringing up his century with a huge six off the next ball and then a four sealed the victory.

Earlier, Rassie van der Dussen gave South Africa something to bowl at as the Proteas struggled to 241-6 after losing the toss.

Hashim Amla made a sluggish 55 off 83 balls but Van der Dussen’s 67 not out came at better than a run a ball.

During his innings, Amla became the fourth South African to reach 8,000 runs in one-day internationals.

He is the second-fastest player (176 innings) from any side to reach the milestone after India’s Virat Kohli (175 innings).

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
January 9,2020

Kuala Lumpur, Jan 9: BWF World Championships defending champion PV Sindhu on Thursday cruised to the quarterfinals of the ongoing Malaysia Masters after winning a second-round match.

The 24-year-old had the upper hand in the clash and thrashed Japan's Aya Ohori in straight games 21-10, 21-15 that lasted for 34-minute. The world number six will now play in her quarterfinal match on January 10.

Earlier in the day, Saina Nehwal defeated South Korea's An Se Young 25-23, 21-12 in 38 minutes. The first game saw back and forth action between both shuttlers. In the end, Nehwal kept her cool to win the match.

On Wednesday, the 29-year-old had outclassed Belgium's Lianne Tan 21-15, 21-17 to progress to the pre-quarterfinals.

Shuttlers Parupalli Kashyap and Kidambi Srikanth crashed out of the tournament after losing their matches to Japan's Kento Momota and Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei respectively. 

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 31,2020

New Delhi, Mar 31: Australia batsman David Warner on Tuesday decided to shave off his head to show support towards all those people who are working relentlessly on the frontline in the battle against coronavirus.

After shaving off his head, Warner also challenged his Australian team-mate Steve Smith and India skipper Virat Kohli to do the same.

Warner, shared a time-lapse video on Instagram, of him shaving his head, and captioned the post as: "Been nominated to shave my head in support of those working on the frontline #Covid-19 here is a time-lapse. I think my debut was the last time I recall I've done this. Like it or not".

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Australia's death toll stands at 19, as per the Sydney Morning Herald.

As of 8 am today, 4460 people across Australia have tested positive for COVID-19.

The World Health Organisation had termed coronavirus as a 'pandemic' on March 11.

Earlier in the day, Australia Test skipper Tim Paine also confirmed that the side's tour of Bangladesh is unlikely due to the virus spread.
"You don't have to be Einstein to realise (the Bangladesh tour) is probably unlikely to go ahead, particularly in June. Whether it's cancelled or pushed back, we're not quite sure at the moment," cricket.com.au quoted Paine as saying.

Currently, Australia has 296 points in the WTC from 10 matches, while India has 360 points from nine matches.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
January 30,2020

Hamilton, Jan 30: Caught unaware about the Super Over scenario, Rohit Sharma took five minutes to “find” his abdomen guard after the third T20 International against New Zealand had ended in a tie on Wednesday.

The India vice-captain said the team had almost given up with New Zealand going great guns at one point.

“Everything was packed. All my stuff was inside my bag. I had to get it out. It literally took me five minutes to find my abdomen guard because I didn’t know where it was,” Rohit said.

“I mean we never thought it would go to the Super Over, the way they were batting at one point. It looked like they could easily win the game,” he added.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.