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Fleming's knock brings Kiwis home

Tuesday, February 17 2004

Stephen Fleming has made another classy knock of 108 in seeing New Zealand beat South Africa by 5 wickets in the second ODI at Jade Stadium.

Batting first South Africa found batting difficult in seaming conditions that Daryl Tuffey, Kyle Mills and Jacob Oram exploited perfectly. Gibbs departed for 0 and Kallis fell for 6 to see South Africa in trouble at 28/2 from 11 overs.

Smith and Dippenaar then combined to get South Africa back on track and they managed to pick up the scoring rate nicely before Dippenaar was caught in front to Vettori for 36 which saw South Africa at 107/3 from 27 overs which was a good recovery.

Rudolph was the next in and continued where Dippenaar left off in forming a good partnership with Smith. Rudolph really took to the bowling of Styris but he had the last word in dismissing him for 42 from just 36 balls. This was exactly what South Africa needed though and along with Smith there partnership really did lift the scoring rate.

A tired Smith was the next to go for 80 being caught at third man. Constant wickets then fell in the usually powerful South African lower order but some late hitting from Pollock and Ntini managed to get South Africa 253/8 which Smith said after the game he was more than happy with after struggling early on.

New Zealand knew they needed a good start having lost 18 of their past 20 one dayers against South Africa and got it in some respects in Shaun Pollock having an off day with the ball. Pollock bowled 3 wides in his over and struggled to find his rhythm all night.

Despite losing Papps and the promoted McCullum early Fleming and Marshall managed to get New Zealand off to an aggressive start but the partnership was cut short when Marshall was dismissed for 18 with the score at 66/2.

Scott Styris and Stephen Fleming continued along in a positive mood. With the score at 124 Styris played a cracking shot to point but Gibbs somehow got his hands under the ball and took one of the catches of the summer and he was out for 24.

This brought the horribly out of form McMillan to the crease but Stephen Fleming seemed to be a calming influence on his partner and together they brought New Zealand closer to victory.

Fleming brought up another century but shortly after mistimed a shot and was out for 108, just 28 runs short of victory.
McMillan and Cairns then finished the job off in seeing New Zealand home by 5 wickets and squaring the series 1-1.

Score Summary

South Africa 253/8 (G Smith 80, J Rudolph 42, M Boucher 40, C Cairns 2/35, K Mills 2/37, D Tuffey 2/47)

New Zealand 255/5 (S Fleming 108, C McMillan 71*, M Ntini 3/45, J Kallis 1/20)

New Zealand won by 5 wickets

Posted by James