Andre Nel hit nine runs off the last three balls of the match on Sunday to take South Africa to a two-wicket victory in the first of three one-day internationals against New Zealand.
South Africa needed 11 runs off the last over with Mark Boucher the last recognized batsman still at the crease in pursuit of New Zealand's 248-6 at Kingsmead Stadium.
Nel missed the first ball of Mark Gillespie's over and hit the second for a single to get Boucher on strike.
PHOTO: AFP
Boucher scrambled a single off the third ball before Nel drilled the fourth ball past cover for four and lifted the next one over extra cover for another boundary.
The final delivery was sliced just over the ring of fielders brought in to save the single and the Proteas had scraped a victory that had seemed destined to go to the Black Caps.
New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori said he was disappointed by the final over, as well as three dropped catches.
"Mark Gillespie is probably one of our best death bowlers, and if we had taken a catch or two it might have made all the difference," Vettori told a news conference. "We should have won the game."
South Africa's chase started badly with Morne van Wyk -- in for the injured Herschelle Gibbs -- being bowled for a duck off the third ball of the innings by Mills.
Mills returned the best bowling figures of his one-day international career, taking 5-25. He took 3-7 in his final two overs as South Africa seemed to slip in sight of the finish.
After Mills dismissed Jacques Kallis for 1, South Africa captain Graeme Smith and A.B. de Villiers set about rebuilding the innings. Smith fell for 44 trying to pull Scott Styris over square leg, but De Villiers pushed on and eventually was well held by Vettori off his own bowling for 87.
J.P. Duminy hit a bright 46 off 59 balls before also holing out to a mistimed pull shot, leaving Boucher to steer South Africa to victory. The wicketkeeper finished on 35-not-out. Nel was 10-not-out.
Earlier, Jamie How scored 90 to help New Zealand reach 248-6. He hit 11 fours in 124 balls before edging a delivery from Nel onto his stumps in the 48th over.
Nel was the best of South Africa's bowlers. He clean bowled Gareth Hopkins with the next delivery after dismissing How and also had Styris (40) caught by Johan Botha at midwicket after top-edging a pull shot to finish 3-46.
Opener Brendon McCullum survived a lot of movement through the air in overcast conditions and off the pitch to score a battling 40 off 67 balls after Lou Vincent was bowled by Makhaya Ntini for 6.
Mathew Sinclair, who was hit on the helmet by a bouncer from Ntini, hit an undefeated 32 off 23 balls late in the innings to give New Zealand a defendable total.
Shaun Pollock conceded just 21 runs in his 10 overs, but the other bowlers were expensive. Albie Morkel conceded 54 runs for a single wicket, while Ntini went for 62 off nine overs.
South Africa won the Test series against New Zealand 2-0 and the Twenty20 international by three wickets on Friday. The next match in the series will be played on Friday in Port Elizabeth.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
Shuttler Lin Chun-yi yesterday kept Taiwan on the board as they faced their first major challenge of the group stage after marching into the last eight at the Sudirman Cup Finals in Xiamen, China. Taiwan were losing 3-1 to South Korea as of press time last night, with only the men’s doubles match remaining. Taiwan and four-time champions South Korea have already progressed to the quarter-finals, after Taiwan on Monday blanked the Czech Republic 5-0 without giving up a single game. Before last night’s tie, Taiwan were undefeated in Group B, with a 9-1 match record, ahead of South Korea, who, although also
RSS