NZ VS RSA - Match 25, ICC Cricket World Cup 2019

Quarter-finals in 2011, semis in 2015 and now the Kiwis seem to have knocked out SA from the group stages. The hoodoo continues. The jinx remains unbroken. The form suggested so as well because the Proteas had a bumpy ride coming into this. But the game had moments. Topsy turvy ones. Mostly nervy ones. But none bigger than Kane surviving an edge which SA didn't pick up. Colin de Grandhomme came, saw and decimated to take NZ to the brink. The final touches were given by the head craftsman -- Kane Williamson. The WC had been longing for a thriller and the genre has been finally tasted by the fans. The world needs a powerful SA team and until they pull their socks up, this is Kumar Abhisekh Das on behalf of MS Ramakrishnan, Akshay Maanay, Raju Peethala, Vineet Anantharaman, Abhinand Raghavendran and a distraught SA fan Shashikant Singh wishing you good night.

Here are the moments that South Africa failed to cash in

37.1 - Miller drops a toughie at short mid-wicket. Desperate shouts of 'catch it' from the bowler (Tahir). It just doesn't stick these low catches
37.4 - Miller again! This time relatively easy by his standards. Goes one-handed after de Grandhomme chipped it to his left, only if it had stuck...
37.6 - Tahir won't give up. Never does. Sees some sort of contact as the ball passed the bat. Appeal. A huge one from him. He strolls, he stares but gets nothing (absolutely nothing) from the keeper. None of the ring fielders spotted it either. Guess what, there was a nick and of course, a clear spike on the UltraEdge. Amidst this chaos, Faf was at long-on and he got no signs of 'let's go upstairs' kinda look from anyone. Oops!
40.1 - Williamson miscues a pull onto his body. He loses sight of the ball, but trusts his partner (de Grandhomme) and rushes to the other end in hope of completing a single. Rabada was quick to gather the ball, but he misses the target. Miller breaks the stumps without the ball in his hand. Williamson wasn't even in the frame. Oh, South Africa!

Harsha Bhogle: Another World Cup, another heartbreak for South Africa. Their story of the World Cup has been a long running tear-jerker.

Kane Williamson: To be honest, I thought the wicket was a little soft. so, both teams were looking to bowl on it. The wicket had a little softness to it and the bowlers hit the hard lengths. Well, you try to read the wicket as the game goes. The slower bowlers felt that they were the hardest to get away. The bowling attack did really well. We just had a fairly quiet chat. He (Colin de Grandhomme) is our x-factor player. He came in and hit the ball beautifully. He played a brilliant knock. We have played on a variety of pitches. When you come into these tournaments, you know you will be playing different opponents on different wickets. Lot of big games coming up.

Faf du Plessis: We were aiming for 260. 260 was par on this wicket, 270 would have been a great score. 260 would have probably been a really good score. Individual batters needed to look at bowlers who they can put away. Kane did it well. He picked on the bowlers he wanted to. 100 from one guy helps in a chase. I thought we threw ourselves around. We fought. The energy was unbelievable. Kane taking his team home was too good for us. There was no real appeal (on the Williamson nick against Tahir). There was no real 'let's have a look at it'. We can only control our performances. We are fighting as a team. We tried to compete but it was not to be.

Kane Williamson, Man of the Match: It's nice to be there at the end. It was a pretty tough surface, a bit soft and that ball was holding on. I thought the first half was a really good effort from us, pitching the ball in the right areas. We knew at the halfway stage that we had done well with the ball. We then had to build partnerships, but we kept losing wickets and coupled with the tight South African bowling made life difficult for us. de Grandhomme for me was the standout with his bowling and the impetus he gave us with the bat in the end. We just tried to get through the tough parts, we knew we would face dots. I just tried communicating with my partners, and despite trying to score quickly, I kept finding the fielders. Trying to do the job as well as you can, and a number of other contributions were vital. It was one of those surfaces that creates close contests and it was nice to get a win today.

Harsha Bhogle: South Africa's great strength as an outstanding one-day side over the years lay in the fact that they gave the opposition nothing. Everything had to be earned. They will look back at today and wonder about the little things that cost them.

19:52 Local Time, 18:52 GMT, 00:22 IST: The pint-sized genius does it for NZ. Thy name is Kane Williamson. Four wins out of five games for the Kiwis. SA remain on one win out of 6 and are almost on the brink of elimination. Whatta game we witnessed. The game swung like a free swinging pendulum but the NZ skipper's ton had enough wavelength to take his team home. He stuck it out, batted out tough moments, cashed in on the loose ones and rode his luck to ensure Kiwis are still unbeaten in the tournament. He of course had help from CDG, who perhaps played one of the game turning knocks of the tourney so far. On a tough wicket, he took the challenge head on and played his shots one after the other. And took them really close. But when he got out, his skipper took over and took them home. But cricket is a game of fine margins. Is it as fine as the edge that SA didn't pick up off the last ball of Tahir's spell? That might well have cost Proteas the game and a chance to make it to the semis. They now have a mountain to climb and their oxygen supply is almost over. A win today could have brought their breathe back but they blinked. Blinked far too many times to let it go by. Scroll up to figure out the near misses for SA in the game. If you are a SA fan, you are advised to give it a miss.

Harsha Bhogle: What a brilliant player, what an understated man. The player you want in your team under pressure. Williamson.

Last five SA-NZ WC encounters:
Joburg, 2003: NZ won by nine wickets
Grenada, 2007: NZ won by five wickets
Mirpur, 2011: NZ won by 49 runs
Auckland, 2015: NZ won by four wickets
Edgbaston, 2019: NZ won by four wickets

NZ captains scoring 100s in WCs:
Glenn Turner (Two in 1975)
Martin Crowe (1992)
Stephen Fleming (2003, 2007)
Kane Williamson (2019) *

Phehlukwayo to Williamson, FOUR, and the stab past point does it for the Kiwis. The high flying Kiwis continue their top flight. SA sink again. Have they drowned? Might well be a little straw lying somewhere. Short, slow and wide.. Williamson laid his bat on it and got it between point and short third for a four

Phehlukwayo to Williamson, SIX, wow! Ton for the skipper! And whatta shot to bring it up. Slower delivery and has been slog swept over deep mid. This man. Take a bow. Ton of the tournament? Picked the bones out of that dead meat of a slower delivery. The scores are level!

Another confab between the bowler and the skipper. Three inside on the off-side and one on the on-side

Harsha Bhogle: Game of the tournament. Game that will be remembered beyond the tournament.

Phehlukwayo to Santner, 1 run, slower delivery at the body, pulled away to deep mid for a single. Miller did well to move to his left and release the throw to allow only a single. 7 off 5 balls

Andile Phehlukwayo [8.0-0-62-1] is back into the attack

Ngidi has gone off. Duminy coming in doesn't matter much I guess. I see Gould not allowing Duminy in. Ngidi will have to continue. Smart from Gould not to have allowed the change. Phehlukwayo will have to bowl the over of his life to help the Proteas overcome the mountain named Kane Williamson. The skipper had a long word with his ward. He wants everything perfect. Fine leg is up. 8 needed. 6 balls.

Sandeep Raja: "Wow! This game has been an epic roller-coaster. Just when you thought NZ has it, they lose another wicket!"

Lungi Ngidi to Williamson, FOUR, touch of genius! That was deft. Cute. Adjectives on a loop mode. Slower one outside off and was guided away past the man at short third for a four. Should the third man been on the fence for the final ball? Rabada in the last over was asked of the same by his skipper. Williamson showed his presence of mind though. Superb percentage shot and got them four runs

Lungi Ngidi to Santner, 1 run, smashes it dead straight! As straight as the ram-rod and disturbs the wood work at the bowler's end. Only a single as the ricochet off the sticks goes to long-off. Needless to mention was another slower delivery. 12 off 7 balls. And Lungi Ngidi trying to stop it almost did a full split

Lungi Ngidi to Santner, no run, ripping offie outside off and Santner looks to guide and misses it. 13 off 8 balls. Tension..mind your nails..

The trick is to bowl slower ones. Can Ngidi continue the good job? Santner on strike. Will he play the big shot? Will he play percentage cricket?

Lungi Ngidi to Williamson, 1 run, chips down the track and chips it over the bowler's head for a single. First run off the over

Lungi Ngidi to Williamson, no run, has he dropped it? Or did it not carry? Slower delivery and Williamson almost got a soft leading edge which landed inches short of the bowler, who dived forward. Kiwis breathe