CT25: NZ v South Africa, notebook dump

A cricket-only post for $ subscribers

Rachin Ravindra — boundaries in flurries. Getty Images

NZ 362 for 6 (Ravindra 108, Williamson 102, Mitchell 49, Phillips 49*; Ngidi 3-72); South Africa 312 for 9 (Miller 100*, van der Dussen 69, Bavuma 56; Santner 3-43). NZ won by 50 runs.

There is no such thing as a stress-free semifinal, but if you were to, say, compare this one to the last time these two teams met in the semifinal of an ICC men’s one-day international tournament ($) , this one was a walk in the maidan.

Here’s five points of interest from a terrific performance.

1. That was a beautifully constructed first innings, made all the more impressive because, initially at least, the pitch didn’t play as true Mitchell Santner suspected it would when he won the toss and batted. If you think about how you might want to draw the perfect innings up, it would look something like this:

• The openers look to see if it’s swinging and nibbling, try to pierce the infield to move the score in fours and, when the final overs of the powerplay approach, one or both try to accelerate. Result: Opening partnership of 48 in 7.5 overs.

• Your two most talented batters, who happen to be a nice left-hand, right-hand combo, get together and go big (more on Rachin Ravindra and Kane Williamson in #2), setting the table for the hitters to follow. Result: Second wicket partnership of 164, ended in the 34th over.

• You get multiple high-strike-rate contributions and cameos from your middle order. Result: Numbers four through eight contribute 120 runs in just 82 balls.

That is in very simple terms, the anatomy of a match-winning total.