Opener Michael Papps made a painstaking 92 to steer New Zealand to a five-wicket win over South Africa in the sixth limited-overs cricket international yesterday, completing an historic 5-1 series win.
Papps carried his bat through the New Zealand innings, for 201 minutes, hitting his 10th boundary from the last ball of the 46th over to take the home side past South Africa's total of 186 for nine.
The win lifted New Zealand to third behind Australia and South Africa in the international one-day rankings.
PHOTO: REUTERS
"It's a pretty rapid climb but we knew there's a group of about three or four teams that were pretty close," said New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming. "We knew what was on offer today, probably didn't play as polished as we would have liked but it was still a good win."
Papps' total, his highest in one-day matches and his second half century in the series, earned him selection for the first test starting March 10.
New Zealand built its innings around Papps, who gave the chase a solid platform as the junior partner in a 58-run opening partnership with Fleming, who batted elegantly before being run out for 32.
PHOTO: AFP
Papps' remaining partnerships were moderate: five for the second wicket, 22 for the third, 30 for the fourth and 40 for the fifth but he hurried the winning runs along in a last, unbroken stand of 35 with Chris Harris.
"It's a confidence booster, and great to contribute to the team," Papps said. "It's a great environment and we're playing good cricket."
There were brief signs of weakness in the New Zealand middle-order, when Chris Cairns was bowled around his legs by Robin Peterson for 10 and when Scott Styris was caught behind for the same score.
PHOTO: AFP
Styris was out in bizarre circumstances, charging down the wicket at Shaun Pollock and deflecting the ball off an inside edge to Mark Boucher behind the stumps.
New Zealand realized it should not have faced such a demanding total. The South African innings was in ruins at 40-6 in the 14th over but New Zealand allowed the tourists, in two record partnerships, to rebuild.
Captain Graeme Smith admitted later he made a mistake in choosing to bat after winning the toss.
"I didn't think the pitch would have any movement in it and it did," he said. "It was a two-game wicket.''
The unlikely hero for South Africa was tailender Mikhaya Ntini, who made a career-best 42 not out and shared a record 10th-wicket partnership of 67 with Albie Morkel. He followed up with bowling figures of 1-44 from 10 overs.
Ntini and Morkel's unbroken stand followed a record seventh wicket partnership of 63 between Klusener and Ashwell Prince which began the South African recovery.
Wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum took five catches as Daryl Tuffey, Michael Mason and Jacob Oram scythed through the South African top order, leaving the tourists' 20-4, 29-5 and finally 40-6.
Proteas skipper Graeme Smith made 9, Herschelle Gibbs 3, Jacques Kallis 0 and Shaun Pollock 87, all falling to catches behind the wicket.
Mark Boucher was dismissed without scoring and Jacques Rudolph for 3 to outfield catches as New Zealand crashed through the top and middle-order.
Prince, playing in only his third one-day international, was the first batsman to meet the New Zealand bowlers with any real defiance. He lacked support until the veteran Klusner joined him after the loss of Pollock and helped him build a record stand.
The pair stuck together from the 14th to the 33rd over and, with careful placement and slow accumulation, put on 63 runs.
Prince made 47, the innings' top-score, before he was brilliantly caught and bowled by Jacob Oram to leave South Africa 114-8.
Klusener was run out for 35, leaving South Africa's innings precariously balanced and it seemed they would be dismissed inside their previous low-score against New Zealand of 147.
But after the loss of Robin Peterson cheaply at 119, Morkel and Ntini took the attack to the New Zealand bowlers.
Ntini blasted two sixes off Chris Harris to signal his intentions and added three fours in a fierce rearguard action. Morkel was happy to lend the strike to the more aggressive batsman but still managed to added 23 from 54 balls.
Zimbabwe versus Bangladesh
A second test century by Zimbabwe batsman Stuart Carlisle put some sparkle into an otherwise damp and dismal draw on Monday in the second test against Bangladesh at the Queens Sports Club.
He scored a faultless 103 on the fifth and last day, off 179 balls.
Carlisle's ninth four to bring up his second hundred since he notched 118 against Australia in October, drew the curtain on the test, which Zimbabwe finished at 210 for two in reply to Bangladesh's 168 in the first innings.
Zimbabwe took the two-test series 1-0 after beating Bangladesh by 183 runs in Harare last week.
The match was badly affected by heavy rainstorms. The first, second and fourth days were lost altogether because of water and mud on the field.
Only three hours were possible on day three, Saturday, with an almost ironic full sunny day on Monday.
The umpires David Orchard and Neil Mallender decided, in spite of no prospect for a result, to play the match out.
Bangladesh, resuming from 88-5 on Saturday, avoiding a collapse which might have raised slender hopes for the Zimbabweans. The visitors reached a modest but sufficient 168 all out.
Manjural Islam Rana survived three dropped catches to reach 39, while Mohammad Rafique offered resistance near the end of the innings with 26 not out.
In reply, Carlisle put on 129 for the second wicket with opener Trevor Gripper, who mishit a hook off Tapash Baisya, and was caught by wicketkeeper Khaled Mashud for 65.
Baisya had taken 2-18 off 10 overs, but after Carlisle and Grant Flower gave the fast bowler a pounding and took him out of the attack, the batsmen were slowed by Mushfiqur Rahman and Mohammad Rafique.
Carlisle ground through the 80s and, when the match appeared to be heading for stumps, he suddenly shot through the 90s. Flower finished unbeaten on 37.
The two teams move into a five-match one-day series beginning in Bulawayo on Saturday.
They have met 10 times before in limited overs internationals, and Zimbabwe has won them all.
Six Nations Challenge
Feik Kloppenburg hit 52 runs and took three wickets for 27 to help the Netherlands beat Canada by 67 runs in the second round of the Six Nations Challenge on Monday.
Also, Namibia, a 2003 World Cup participant, was eliminated from reaching Sunday's final, when it lost to Scotland by 93 runs, and the host United Arab Emirates beat the US by five wickets in another second-round match.
Kloppenburg's man-of-the-match effort was almost a year to the day of another outstanding performance, when he scored the Netherlands' first ever century in its first World Cup victory, against Namibia.
This time, his 52 off 84 balls helped the Dutch open with a 99-run stand for a formidable total of 236. He then took 3-27 to reduce Canada to 97-5. Austin Codrington led the tailenders' fightback, but he was bowled for 24 by the Dutch team's most capped player, Tim de Leede, who took 3-14.
The United States put up a handy 245-6 from half centuries by Rohan Alexander (50) and Clayton Lambert (57), but Emirates skipper Khurram Khan plundered the Americans' bowling for a tournament-high 103 off 104 balls, including eight boundaries and a six.
He and teammate Syed Maqsood put on 159 runs to rescue the Emirates from 41-4.
Scotland overcame Sunday's loss to the Netherlands to beat Namibia by 93 runs and knock out the latter from a chance to qualify for the Champions Trophy in September in England.
Burton van Rooi's 4-40 restricted Scotland to 160-8, but Namibia was all out for 67 in less than 23 overs, as Paul Hoffman, Douglas Brown and John Blain shared the wickets.
The winner of the Six Nations Challenge will become the 12th and final team to qualify for the Champions Trophy.
Tuesday is a rest day in the 50-over round-robin tournament in Dubai and Sharjah. On Wednesday, the Emirates take on Scotland, the United States plays Canada, and the Netherlands face Namibia.
The Six Nations Challenge is part of the ICC's program to narrow the gap between developing and test nations. The first edition of the tournament was won by Kenya and also featured Canada, the Netherlands, Namibia, Sri Lanka A and Zimbabwe A.
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