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It’ll be fascinating to see who opens the bowling along with Matt Henry. There is some talk that Mitchell Santner, who rarely bowls in the Powerplay, might start in the hope of stifling his opposite number Aiden Markram. The trouble with that is that the left-handed Quinton de Kock could do damage against Santner’s left-arm spin, plus you lose at least one over from Santner later in the innings.
This week’s Spin is a particularly good read
Team news
South Africa, who rested some players for their last Super Eight game againt Zimbabwe, have made three changes. David Miller, Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada return in place of George Linde, Anrich Nortje and Kwena Maphaka.
New Zealand bring in Jimmy Neesham for Ish Sodhi, who was preferred on the more spin-friendly surfaces in Colombo. Neesh for Ish. The outstanding Matt Henry has made it back after returning home for the birth of his second child.
South Africa Markram (c), De Kock (wk), Rickelton, Brevis, Miller, Stubbs, Jansen, Bosch, Rabada, Maharaj, Ngidi.
New Zealand Seifert (wk), Allen, Ravindra, Phillips, Chapman, Mitchell, Santner (c), McConchie, Neesham, Henry, Ferguson.
New Zealand win the toss and bowl
That’s a pretty good toss to win, as discussed earlier. “There’s a slight dew factor,” says South Africa captain Aiden Markram. “But if you can put runs on the board in a knockout game, it’s not always the worst thing.”
Simon Burnton
“I wish cricket was that easy,” said Aiden Markram, the South Africa captain and the highest-scoring batter remaining in the competition. “Both teams have played a lot of cricket since [SA beat New Zealand in the group stage] and it’s a completely fresh start. I don’t think it’s as straightforward as being able to repeat that again. With regards to us being favourites or not, that’s all different people’s opinions.”
Mitchell Santner insisted the teams reconvene as equals. “Whether you want to call us underdogs or not, for us it was everyone’s goal throughout the tournament to get to this stage. We’re here now, and we back ourselves in one-off games against most teams,” he said. “South Africa look a very good outfit but they’re in the same boat as us now – it’s one game and you’re into a final.”
Preamble
How can you mend a broken heart? South Africa and New Zealand hope to find out in the next few days. These are the heartbreak kids of men’s white-ball cricket: they’ve never won a World Cup, and between them they have lost four finals and 17 semi-finals.
It’ll be 18 after today’s game, but the winners will have to chance to find the Holy Grail in Ahmedabad on Sunday. South Africa have been the best team in the tournament; no ifs, no buts, no sneery ch- words. They thrashed India in the Super Eights and have won all seven games, even if they needed two Super Overs to beat Afghanistan.
New Zealand were beaten by South Africa in the first group stage and needed help from Sri Lanka to qualify for the semi-final ahead of Pakistan. They haven’t lit up the tournament but they’re in the last four, as per, and only a complete eejit would take them for granted.
In fact, New Zealand will arguably be the favourites if they win the toss. It’s often a big factor in Kolkata, where the dew makes it preferable to bat last. We’ll soon find out who has that advantage.
