NZ vs SA, 3rd T20I: New Zealand has defeated South Africa by 8 wickets in the third T20I played in Auckland. With this victory, the host New Zealand team is ahead 2-1 in the 5 T20 match series. New Zealand wrote the script of its victory by proving South Africa 19 on both the batting and bowling fronts. Earlier, South Africa had won the first T20 of the series, whereas New Zealand has maintained its strong performance in the second T20I in the third T20I as well.
New Zealand won the match by 8 wickets
New Zealand had a target of 137 runs to win, which it won by 8 wickets with 22 balls remaining. For New Zealand, Tom Latham remained unbeaten after scoring 63 runs. There was a partnership of 96 runs between the opening pair, which made New Zealand’s path to victory easier.
South Africa’s batting disintegrated badly in the third T20I
Earlier, in the third T20, New Zealand won the toss and put South Africa to bat first. This move of the Kiwi team worked as wickets of South African batsmen kept falling at regular intervals. Half of the South African team was seen sitting in the dugout in the third T20 on a score of just 46 runs.
How South Africa’s top order and middle order failed in front of New Zealand’s sharp bowling can be gauged from the fact that the biggest innings of 26 runs was played by the number 10 batsman. However, even after that the South African team remained far away from the score of 150 runs in 20 overs. South Africa scored only 136 runs for 9 wickets.
Lockie Ferguson became player of the match by taking 1 wicket.
New Zealand tried 6 bowlers in the match and all of them took wickets. The most economical bowling was of Lockie Ferguson, who took 1 wicket for 9 runs in 4 overs. For this strong and effective performance, he was also chosen Player of the Match after the end of the match.
Now the fourth T20I is to be played between New Zealand and West Indies on 22 March.