Offering Hashim Amla a life is generous. Gifting him two is criminal. New Zealand were left searching for a third chance while he completed a 16th ODI century in Mount Maunganui. Faced with a target of 283, the hosts’ reply was woefully similar to the series opener: wickets rained down at one end, Luke Ronchi carried on at the other, reset New Zealand’s record for the final-wicket partnership and was last man out to hand South Africa the series.
Short of two of their best batsmen, Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson, the New Zealand top order looked far too green and struggled to balance attack and defence. Only Ronchi, who made a brisk 79 off 83, displayed enough application to tax South Africa’s bowlers.
Martin Guptill drilled a half-volley into short cover’s waiting hands and the scoreboard read 25 for 1. Four runs later, James Neesham suffered another dejection as he continued flirting with the role of one-day opener, dragging the ball onto his stumps.
Tom Latham transformed a rank long hop from AB de Villiers’ into the South Africa captain’s maiden ODI wicket, Dean Brownlie missed a straight delivery and his off stump took the brunt of it, and Corey Anderson nailed a short ball to short midwicket. All three wickets took place while the scoreboard was creaking from 60 for 70.
Brendon McCullum swept across the line of a tossed-up Imran Tahir delivery and was lbw. With 193 needed off 148 balls, the contest was already snuffed out. The innings could have been snuffed out sooner but for the stubborn Ronchi, and De Villiers’ desire to keep the part-time bowlers going. De Villiers himself bowled six overs and grabbed 2 for 28.
Mount Maunganui might have done enough to tempt the wanderlust in most people, with an almost utopian combination of beaches and mountains. But the Bay Oval pitch has not been quite as fetching. Amla, though, managed its sluggish nature brilliantly for 44.2 overs. He manipulated the lines of the bowlers, jumping outside off and whipping through midwicket. The ploy also sucked New Zealand into bowling too far outside off and he was able to chop through the covers to keep adding to his tally. Fifty-seven of his runs came through those regions.
New Zealand’s fielding too was rather amateurish. An Amla outside edge slid away to the third man boundary, with keeper and a wide first slip staring at each other. He had been on 5. With no luck off the fuller length, Southee flung down a few short balls and the inherent tennis-ball bounce on offer messed with Amla’s pulls. One of them skewed off the top edge, but Daniel Vettori lost sight of it in the sun.
If Amla was the backbone, Faf du Plessis was the propellant as he used his feet to create the lengths he wanted. Despite only five boundaries in his innings – including two stunning straight sixes – his 67 came off only 73 balls. The partnership accounted for 113 runs through the middle overs at 5.46 per over without any risk.
Amla was at his sublime best in the 44th over- having just reached his century – when Trent Boult was carved through point, tucked past midwicket, manoeuvred to fine leg and slashed to third man for four successive boundaries and the bowler was eventually left nursing figures of 10-0-70-2.
South Africa had looked primed to cross 300, but Amla’s dismissal sparked a collapse. Six wickets fell in the final 34 balls for the addition of only 25 runs.Anderson delivered a double-wicket maiden to end the innings as only one of the last six overs cost more than five runs.
The only other time New Zealand forced the opposition to dig deep was when Ronchi and Mitchell McClenaghan, who had become the joint second-fastest to 50 ODI wickets earlier in the day, combined to add 76 runs for the 10th wicket and improving the record set during the previous match. But it was nothing more than a consolation prize.
South Africa
HM Amla b Southee 119
Q de Kock b McClenaghan 26
F du Plessis c †Ronchi b Neesham 67
AB de Villiers c †Ronchi b Southee 37
JP Duminy lbw b Boult 19
DA Miller b Anderson 7
RR Rossouw c Guptill b Boult 0
VD Philander c Brownlie b McClenaghan 1
DW Steyn c †Ronchi b Anderson 0
M Morkel not out 0
Imran Tahir not out 0
Extras (w 4, nb 2) 6
Total (9 wickets; 50 overs; 217 mins) 282
Fall of wickets 1-56 (de Kock, 12.3 ov), 2-169 (du Plessis, 33.1 ov), 3-235 (de Villiers, 42.3 ov), 4-257 (Amla, 44.2 ov), 5-279 (Duminy, 47.5 ov), 6-279 (Rossouw, 47.6 ov), 7-282 (Philander, 48.6 ov), 8-282 (Steyn, 49.2 ov), 9-282 (Miller, 49.3 ov)
Bowling
TA Boult 10-0-70-2, TG Southee 10-1-50-2, MJ McClenaghan 10-0-49-2, CJ Anderson 4-1-30-2, DL Vettori 10-0-41-0, JDS Neesham 4-0-32-1, MJ Guptill 2-0-10-0
New Zealand
MJ Guptill c Rossouw b Philander 11
JDS Neesham b Morkel 10
DG Brownlie b Steyn 20
TWM Latham c Amla b de Villiers 16
BB McCullum lbw b Imran Tahir 12
CJ Anderson c Miller b Steyn 1
L Ronchi c du Plessis b Philander 79
DL Vettori b Duminy 1
TG Southee b Imran Tahir 5
TA Boult b de Villiers 10
MJ McClenaghan not out 34
Extras (lb 3, w 7, nb 1) 11
Total (all out; 46.3 overs; 206 mins) 210
Fall of wickets 1-25 (Guptill, 7.4 ov), 2-29 (Neesham, 8.1 ov), 3-61 (Latham, 16.4 ov), 4-65 (Brownlie, 17.4 ov), 5-69 (Anderson, 19.3 ov), 6-90 (McCullum, 24.1 ov), 7-95 (Vettori, 25.5 ov), 8-104 (Southee, 28.2 ov), 9-134 (Boult, 32.6 ov), 10-210 (Ronchi, 46.3 ov)
Bowling
DW Steyn 9-1-35-2, VD Philander 7.3-0-27-2, M Morkel 9-1-44-1, JP Duminy 7-0-41-1, AB de Villiers 6-0-28-2, Imran Tahir 8-0-32-2
Match details
Toss New Zealand, who chose to field
Series South Africa led the 3-match series 2-0
Player of the match HM Amla (South Africa)
Umpires SJ Davis (Australia) and DJ Walker
TV umpire RJ Tucker (Australia)
Match referee RS Mahanama (Sri Lanka)
Reserve umpire PD Jones
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