WhyBlack Caps should claim advantage over South Africa in semifinal - Alex Powell
You’ll never hear it from the team themselves, but the Black Caps can be quietly satisfied with the fact they’ll meet South Africa in the semifinals of the Champions Trophy.
As a result of Sunday’s 44-run defeat to India in their final match of the group stage, New Zealand will now travel from Dubai to Pakistan, where they’ll meet the Proteas in Lahore on Wednesday.
In more ways than one, the Black Caps can take great confidence into their last-four encounter.
One of those defeats came against New Zealand at the 2015 World Cup, where a South African side tipped to challenge for a maiden crown were eliminated by Grant Elliott, in a moment that has been written into Kiwi sporting folklore ever since.
On the other side of the equation, the Black Caps’ loss to India also saw them avoid a semifinal match-up against Australia. Of the six major tournament finals New Zealand have reached, three have been against Australia – all of which have ended in Kiwi defeats.
Given that some of cricket’s all-time greats – Jacques Kallis, A.B. de Villiers, Shaun Pollock, Graeme Smith, Dale Steyn and so many others – weren’t able to inspire the Proteas to glory, the Black Caps should have little fear against the class of 2025.
However, even though facing South Africa can be considered the easier option of the two, the Black Caps know history means little in a knockout game.
“Whoever you’re playing at this stage of the tournament, you’ve got the four best teams,” New Zealand seamer Matt Henry explained after the loss to India.
“You don’t really have preferences. You’re going to be faced with challenges, all teams have their strengths.
“South Africa have been playing some fantastic cricket, they’re a very well-balanced side. They’ve got a lot of power in that batting line-up, but they’ve got a serious bowling attack as well
“Semifinal cricket, finals cricket is always exciting, and it’s always great when you’re playing against the best teams.”
Will O'Rourke celebrates with captain Mitchell Santner. Photo / AFP
In New Zealand’s favour is the fact the tournament logistics have not been kind to South Africa.
Given the fact India won’t travel to host country Pakistan and are instead based in Dubai for the entirety of the tournament, other teams have had to be flexible in response.
After South Africa and Australia qualified for the knockouts, both nations travelled to Dubai from Karachi and Lahore respectively. Because the seedings depended on the result of New Zealand’s clash with India, neither side knew where they would be based for their semifinal.
And now that the result has been finalised, South Africa have had to travel all the way back from Dubai to Lahore, along with the Black Caps – who aren’t complaining, or taking any notice of distractions.
“It’s something that’s out of our control,” said New Zealand wicketkeeper Tom Latham. “We don’t decide the schedule.
“For us, it’s about turning up at each game, regardless of where it is, and trying to play our best brand of cricket as best we can.
“We’ve got to adapt on different surfaces, whether that be in Pakistan or in Dubai. We’ve got a semifinal that we want to win, and we’re not looking too far past that at this stage.
“We’ll travel to Pakistan, and we’ll prepare as we usually do and give it our best crack.”
At the very least, New Zealand can take solace from the last time they faced South Africa. The two sides were part of a pre-tournament Tri-Nations series, along with Pakistan, before the Champions Trophy.
However, as was the case with the Black Caps earning a maiden test series win over South Africa at the start of 2024, that Proteas side was hit by domestic Twenty20 commitments.
Just three of the playing XI from the Lahore victory took part in South Africa’s last match, a win over Afghanistan. Whether or not changes to the side will play into either side’s hands, though, remains to be seen.
“The team that we played will be slightly different, they had a lot of guys that weren’t in this side,” added Latham.
“It’ll be slightly different, but from our point of view, we’ll lean on those experiences of Lahore, and playing against South Africa.
“We’ll look to [prepare] as best we can. We’ll do everything we can leading up to a game. It’ll be a reasonably quick turnaround, but it is what it is.
“We’ll be looking forward to the challenge of a semifinal.”
