NZ vs SA Highlights, 1st T20I<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n\u201cI think all the plans paid off and the execution was top-notch from our bowlers,\u201d South Africa captain Keshav Maharaj said. \u201cIt was a young bowling lineup, but whatever we asked them to do, they stood up. It was a little nervy towards the end but it showed the maturity in Connor and Dian in the way they played to take it over the line.\u201d<\/p>\n
New Zealand had eight players missing from its World Cup squad, including its top-six batters from the team that lost the final against India by 96 runs and beat South Africa by nine wickets in the semifinals.<\/p>\n
After choosing to bat first, New Zealand lost five wickets in the PowerPlay, couldn\u2019t recover and stumbled to its 10th-lowest score in T20Is, its second-lowest against South Africa.<\/p>\n
Gerald Coetzee dismissed New Zealand openers Devon Conway and Tom Latham within the first three overs, finishing with 2-14, then Ottneil Baartman took 2-22 to help complete the ruin of the New Zealand top order.<\/p>\n
Baartman dismissed Tim Robinson and Nick Kelly, on debut, before the run-out of Bevon Jacobs left New Zealand on 36 for five.<\/p>\n
Nqobani Mokoena ran through New Zealand\u2019s lower order, taking 3-26 to stifle any hope of a late resurgence. A 26-run partnership between Jimmy Neesham (26) and Santner (15) was the best New Zealand could manage.<\/p>\n
Neesham fell to Mokoena and captain Santner to his South Africa counterpart Maharaj, who took 2-25.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was quite cool making my debut in the first game, and I went out there to enjoy it,\u201d said Mokoena, 19, who was Player of the Match.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first two overs didn\u2019t really go my way, and I thought I wasn\u2019t going to get any wickets. But I just stuck to my plans and thank God it paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n
New Zealand plays so often overseas that it\u2019s possible it can no longer judge its home conditions. The pitch at Bay Oval looked docile at a glance, but the South African seamers found both seam and swing in the warm early evening conditions.<\/p>\n
There was even a little turn for the spinners later. All of the New Zealanders struggled with their timing.<\/p>\n
Conway chipped an attempted pull shot to mid-wicket, and Latham didn\u2019t stop to review when he was hit on the front pad by an inswinging delivery from Coetzee.<\/p>\n
Robinson attempted a slog over the leg side but didn\u2019t connect and was caught by George Linde running in at mid-on. Kelly was left grasping at a ball from Baartman that pitched on a good length and straightened enough to beat his defensive shot.<\/p>\n
Jacobs played the ball into the covers and headed for a single, only to see the stumps at the non-striker\u2019s end shattered by a direct hit from Rubin Hermann.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there was a little more in the pitch than we thought, especially up front,\u201d Santner said. \u201cSouth Africa bowled well and put us under pressure from the start. Wickets in the PowerPlay, it\u2019s always tough from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Published on Mar 15, 2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A South Africa team with four players on debut rolled World Cup finalist New Zealand for 91 in 14.3 overs and went on to win the first T20I on Sunday by seven wickets. Opener Connor Esterhuizen anchored the South Africa reply with an unbeaten 45 from 48 balls as the Proteas won with 20 balls…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2266579393.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgnRh4-AYa","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=142114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/142115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=142114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=142114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=142114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}