SOUTH AFRICA vs NEW ZEALAND, 2ND SEMI FINAL , ICC CHAMPION TROPHY 2025 : NZ Bulldozes SA to Secure Champions Trophy 2025 Final Spot Against India .
New Zealand set up Champions Trophy final date with India as they beat South Africa by 50 runs as David Miller’s century went in vain. Chasing 363, South Africa started off their run-chase on a good note but lost their way after a few early wickets fell in the middle overs, eventually running out of steam despite Miller’s face-saving century. Miller ended up on triple figures off the last ball of the match. New Zealand, earlier, was powered by centuries from Kane Williamson and Rachin Ravindra to make 362/6. Rachin hammered 108 while Williamson was also in fine form, becoming the first New Zealand batter to breach the 19,000 international-run barrier during his innings of 102. New Zealand elected to bat and the two added 164 runs for the second wicket. Daryl Mitchell (49) and Glenn Phillips (49\*) made useful contributions in helping the Kiwis reach past 350 runs. NZ Bulldozes SA to Secure Champions Trophy 2025 Final Spot Against India .
TOSS-
New Zealand won the toss and opt to bat .
TEAMS LINE UP-
SOUTH AFRICA (PLAYING XI)-
Ryan Rickelton, Temba Bavuma (c), Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Wiaan Mulder, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi
NEW ZEALAND(PLAYING XI)-
Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (wk), Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (c), Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, William ORourke
NEW ZEALAND-
New Zealand set a massive total up in the first place with an efficient batting performance earlier in the day. Ravindra was in sublime touch from the beginning and though South Africa undercut the run rate for some time after Will Young’s wicket, two wickets in quick succession soon after, one of Henry Nicholls, ensured New Zealand were back in command as soon as Williamson was settled in.
Particularly, Ravindra was on the warpath as he peppered the boundary with Williamson the junior partner. The duo eventually tore into Keshav Maharaj, who had slowed down the scoring rate for a bit, hitting him a six each. In that course, both batters raised landmarks as Williamson scored his fifty off 61 balls while Ravindra completed three figures (fifth in ODIs) for the fifth time in his career with all those hundreds coming in ICC events.
Williamson took over from there, with Daryl Mitchell content to bat at the other end. The ex-captain kept using the scoop and took just 31 balls for his second fifty as he rolled out the Google of winning. But that was the very shot that led to his downfall as New Zealand now found themselves without both the settled batters going into the death overs. South Africa did threaten to, at one stage, take full advantage of that but Mitchell and then Phillips absolutely went berserk, hammering 83 runs from the final six overs to leave New Zealand all but one foot in the final.
SOUTH AFRICA-
Although South Africa started on 36 from the opening eight in that Power Play, they made up for it as Bavuma, as well as van der Dussen, found the fence a few times. Targeted by William O’Rourke, the South Africans simply couldn’t get the spinners away. It started with Michael Bracewell on repeat bowling one heavy metal over after the next. And when he was joined by Mitchell Santner, it became even more difficult for the batting side.
While the spin-fest continued to give South Africa the brush-off, the duo raised their respective half-centuries. But the chase fell out with Santner took out both the batters in couple of overs. Slowing it down significantly, Santner was able to extract a bit of turn from this surface to claim Bavuma’s scalp before breaking through van der Dussen’s defence.
At that stage, South Africa literally required something special from Heinrich Klaasen to achieve a spectacular victory. But the New Zealand captain answered the call for his team once more and won an eagerly awaited personal battle against the maverick South African keeper-batter, who holed one off his body straight to long on. The traffic only went in one direction from there as Bracewell rounded off the final touches to his spells with a wicket and the likes of Ravindra and Glenn Phillips also getting in the act with three more dismissals between them.
Any lingering interest in the contest, which was already dead and buried at that point, depended on Miller lighting up the sky with a few long ones. With only the tail to bat with, Miller bamboozled both the opposition and the sparse crowd that remained out there, despite seeing the writing on the wall. By the end of the 46th over, Miller was batting on 47 off 43, and he farmed the strike for large portions of the next 24 deliveries, taking on Jamieson and O’Rourke for a flurry of boundaries. Needing 18 off the last six deliveries for a sensational hundred, the South African finisher got the job done when he required 2 off the final delivery. His heroics minimised the loss which at one point seemed to be heading towards 100-plus.
Brief scores:
New Zealand 362/6 in 50 overs (Rachin Ravindra 108, Kane Williamson 102, Glenn Phillips 49\*; Lungi Ngidi 3/72) beat South Africa 312/9 in 50 overs (David Miller 100\*, Rassie van der Dussen 69; Mitchell Santner 3/43) by 50 runs.