An injured Shaun Pollock, needing three sixes from the last three balls, hit only two as South Africa lost to New Zealand by five runs in a thrilling one-day cricket international yesterday.
Batting with a runner after suffering a groin strain, Pollock blasted three sixes among 21 runs in the last over as South Africa nearly scored an improbable victory.
South Africa needed 27 runs from the last over to surpass New Zealand's total of 254-5 in a match shortened to 38 overs per side by the effects of heavy rain.
Pollock was given the strike when Ashwell Prince took a single from the first ball and took two runs, then hit a six to leave South Africa needing 18 runs -- three sixes -- from the last three balls.
Such a finish seemed unlikely until Pollock hit each of the next two balls from medium pacer Kyle Mills into the grandstand for sixes, leaving six required from the final ball.
A shaken Mills regathered his composure to make the last ball of the match a slanting yorker. Pollock, who had stepped away to leg to give himself room, could only stab the ball back to the bowler.
No run came and New Zealand hung on to win the match by five runs, to take a 2-1 lead in the six-match series.
Pollock battered 29 runs from 17 balls and Prince 45 from 38 but South Africa was ultimately unable to surpass a New Zealand total which had been inflated by similarly brilliant late-order batting.
Brendon McCullum and Scott Styris put on 84 runs in 30 minutes, from 7.2 overs at the end of New Zealand's innings to propel the home side to a total it only just managed to defend.
McCullum made 41 from 24 balls, Styris 45 from 27 and jointly the pair gave New Zealand's total substance after South African captain Graeme Smith had won the toss and bowled.
New Zealand had been 170-5 in the 31st over and had lost three quick wickets for seven runs when wicketkeeper McCullum and all-rounder Stryis came together.
The pace of the Kiwi innings had begun to flag as South African captain used slow bowlers, himself included, to restrain New Zealand's scoring after openers Stephen Fleming and Michael Papps had put on 100 for the first wicket.
Captain Fleming scored 43 from 45 balls in a continuation of the fine form he has carried throughout the series. He scored 30 in the first match which was won by South Africa by five wickets and 108 in the second which New Zealand won by the same margin.
Papps found his feet in his third one-day international and scored 67 from 100 balls in an innings which lasted into the 30th over.
The quick loss of Jacob Oram when New Zealand was 163-3, Papps at 165-4 and Craig McMillan at 170-5, briefly slowed New Zealand's progress.
South Africa's reply matched New Zealand's innings. Smith and Herschell Gibbs put on 95 for the first wicket to lay a sound foundation but the innings fell away in its middle stages.
After Gibbs was out for 69, Jacques Kallis for 16 and Smith for 43 -- following on from his innings of 72 and 80 in the first two matches -- South Africa lost five wickets for 21 runs, slumping to 153-6.
Fleming said Styris and McCullum's hitting was the key.
"It won the match for us," Fleming said. "A score of 220 probably would have been short, but that iced the cake for us. The last four overs was phenomenal."
Fleming said Mills was relieved to have survived Pollock's final over.
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