Karachi, Mar 5: Loaded with world-class talent but haunted by the underachievers’ tag at ICC events, New Zealand and South Africa will square off in an evenly-matched second semifinal of the Champions Trophy here on Wednesday.South Africa and New Zealand have won the Champions Trophy once each in 1998 and 2000 respectively but the tournament was called the ICC Knockout Trophy at that time and didn’t carry the significance which it has now.
While South Africa would look to shed their big tournament “chokers” tag, the Kiwis will also be desperate to lay their hands on a title after having finished second best twice in the ODI World Cup (2015 and 2019) and once in the T20 World Cup (2021).
Led by Mitchell Santner, New Zealand finished behind India in Group A, while South Africa topped Group B ahead of Australia.
But there is little to separate the two sides. Both are evenly-matched in most departments but the Proteas look to be slightly ahead on the bowling front because of variety.
The two teams have enough firepower in their batting line-ups and have quality fielders but the contest is expected to be decided by the spinners.
Although the pitches here are a bit on the slower side but they haven’t spun as much as the surfaces in Dubai and it will be interesting to see how the spinners of both the teams fare.
The 44-run loss to India in their last group match notwithstanding, New Zealand will take confidence from their win over South Africa in the tri-series here last month.
Recently, New Zealand successfully chased 305 against South Africa here and then went on to win the tri-series, beating Pakistan in the final, and senior batter Tom Latham feels those experiences will hold them in good stead.