Grant Elliot held his nerve on the penultimate ball to swat Dale Steyn over the long on boundary, sending a 45,000 strong Eden Park into a frenzy, and New Zealand to the World Cup final. South African born Elliot played the innings of his life to help New Zealand find 29 from the final 17 balls and 12 from the final over in a pulsating finish the World Cup richly deserved.
After four one-sided quarterfinals the tournament was screaming out for a close and memorable encounter. Auckland duly delivered with a day’s play that constantly saw momentum ebb and flow, as two teams desperate to book their first ever World Cup final appearance traded blows under intense duress.
New Zealand fired the first shot; Trent Boult matching his deadly late swing with unparalleled accuracy, at one stage bowling to a 7-2 offside field with five slips, and taking two early wickets. Hashim Amla chopped on when he through the hands loosely at a widish drivable length, and when Quinton de Kock gave his wicket away after surviving an earlier storm for 14, South Africa were reeling at 31/2.
While the electric Eden Park crowd bayed for more blood, Faf du Plessis personified the fight and heart of his South African side with a brilliantly composed 82. He withstood the early pressure along with Rilee Rossouw to help build an AB de Villers shaped platform from which the aggressive captain could launch from.
Launch they did too as the 10 overs between 30 and 40 brought 110 runs. The de Villiers led impetus had South Africa perfectly set-up to press on to 350+ before a one and a half hour rain delay curtailed the possibility. The rain delay reduced the contest to 43 hours and meant South Africa had just five more overs to add to their total. The post break hero for South Africa was David Miller who thrashed 49 from just 18 balls to set up the daunting total. Remarkably, de Villiers faced just 7 balls in the final five overs.
Duckworth-Lewis entered the fray at the innings break and adjusted New Zealand’s target t0 298. In the process, asking the Black Caps to successfully complete the largest run chase in World Cup knockout history. History looked entirely plausible when Brendon McCullum launched a familiar attack in the first five overs. He dispatched everything that came his way, including reducing some of the World’s best fast bowlers to club cricket cannon fodder. McCullum’s 26-ball 59 was crucial to his side’s chances and set the perfect tone for the stiff target as well as denting the confidence of Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander – confidence that did not return when they both needed it in the crunch overs.
Despite the fall of McCullum, and a collection of others through the middle overs, Grant Elliot remained calm, found support from Corey Anderson and expertly controlled the asking rate under unimaginable stress. Elliot and Anderson’s 103 run partnership was the determinative contribution of the innings. The pair survived multiple run out chances, and dropped catch collisions to put together their match-winning effort. It shouldn’t go down as a choke, as South Africa left everything out on the park, but there were some interesting options taken by the eventual losers.
In particular, JP Duminy’s early introduction and subsequent choice to bowl round the wicket was head scratching. He can bowl better, as the quarterfinal hat-trick outline, but he picked a poor day to bowl some of his worst stuff. That forced de Villiers himself to make up some of the overs, and he did an okay job until trying a bouncer every over that resulted in boundaries. Rossouw’s decision to throw the ball flat and hard while trying to run out Corey Anderson will be questioned as will Steyn’s final delivery length option.
New Zealand’s win did get a little closer than perhaps it should have. Tight Imran Tahir and Morne Morkel overs asked the South African faithful to believe, but with ten needed from four balls, Daniel Vettori squeezed and important boundary and then Elliot connected perfectly to book New Zealand a spot in Melbourne’s tournament decider.
Dream big New Zealand.
New Zealand 299 for 6 in 42.5 overs (Elliott 84*, McCullum 59, Anderson 58, Morkel 3-59) beat South Africa 281 for 5 in 43 overs (Du Plessis 82, De Villiers 65*, Miller 49) by 4 wickets (D/L method)
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