Kane and Rachin’s Masterclass Propel New Zealand to ICC Champions Trophy Final Against India
There was a moment when Kane Williamson was still new to the crease and struggling to find his touch, when he stood peering at an offending spot on the pitch, somewhere on a good-length area. He had a quizzical look on his face as if to suggest ‘this pitch isn’t quite what we expected, we have to adapt’.
It was the end of an over from Kagiso Rabada during the first Powerplay, and he walked across to have a chat with his partner Rachin Ravindra, who would later say that “the pitch held up at times, looked a bit crumbly,” but how “Kane helped me”. The ball had begun to show signs of stopping a touch and it was clear then that it was a great toss to win.
Not only did the New Zealanders adapt, they didn’t even settle for a lower target. Instead, the pair changed the way they batted, and instead of attempting to hit on the up and through the line, smartly used the crease and angles so brilliantly that South Africa didn’t have answers. Only Lungi Ngidi impressed, with a slew of slower cutters, but the rest floundered.
‘Masterclass’ is a word often used as a throwaway remark, but the way Williamson and Rachin stitched together their match-winning partnership worth 164 runs deserves the tag. It was their stand that was the architect of the 50-run win that took the Kiwis into the ICC Champions Trophy final against India. Especially when juxtaposed with South Africa’s lame effort with the bat in the chase. Admittedly, the target of 363 was mammoth, but they batted as if they hadn’t bowled on the pitch, sticking to their old methods and looking surprised when the ball got stuck in the pitch and stopped on them. David Miller helped himself to a hundred in the end, but the game had ceased to be a contest much before that.
Suffice to say here that India have the tougher opposition on their hands in the final; if anyone can upset their applecart, it’s New Zealand – not South Africa. Such was their clinical professionalism, smarts – with bat and ball- and composure.
When Williamson’s punches and drives on the up didn’t bring the desired results, he began to unfurl his trickery – the late-cut, dabs, flicks, wristy on-drives. Suddenly, he was up and running. Once Williamson found his touch, South Africa began to crumble.
As compared to Williamson, Rachin was always flowing. When the ball was new in the Powerplay, he punched it to get boundaries. Initially, South Africa thought a short-ball ploy could work. Mistake. Rachin crunched a couple of pulls off the front foot. They then hurled it fuller, and the balls were thrown back from the straight boundary as he creamed them with the full face of the bat.
Lone ranger
The scorecard won’t reveal how well Keshav Maharaj bowled. If he were bowling to his own batsmen, one can easily imagine a five-for, he was that good. But Williamson came into his own against him.
He employed two tactics to throw Maharaj off the perch. He would occasionally step outside leg-stump, and mix it up by moving down the track but getting outside off in the process. He could either cut or ping cow corner with that approach. Against such inventiveness, especially in the calm manner that Williamson pulled it off, Maharaj didn’t stand a chance. And the left-handed Rachin hurt him more by moving down the track to smear him straight or hit with the turn.
Barring Maharaj, there was only Ngidi who tried to be smart with his cutters. Even Rabada had begun to flounder. In the end overs, they got smacked all around the park by Glenn Phillips and Daryl Mitchell.
The South African chase got off to a meandering start. Temba Bavuma couldn’t get going initially but to his credit, recovered in the company of Rassie van der Dussen with a 105-run partnership in almost 17 overs. This was where the New Zealand captain revealed his trump card: himself.
If Maharaj was good, Mitchell Santner was even better. Unlike Maharaj, whose range went from slow to slower, Santner also gets quickish turn. Admittedly, the pitch had begun to help him a lot more by then, but he was skilfull and cerebral with his art. One gripped and broke past the iffy prod from Van Der Dussen to clatter his off-stump. Four overs before that, he had slowed up the pace on one and got it to turn, inducing Bavuma’s intended hoick to spiral up to backward point. Suddenly, South Africa were 161 for 3 in the 27th over.
Much then depended on Heinrich Klaasen but Santner intervened again. Increasingly playing the ball off the pitch, Klaasen kept going back. But such was the match situation that he still had to try and conjure big shots, and he made the mistake of trying to punch-heave Santner off the backfoot. The ball stuck in the pitch, popped up ever so slowly and the catch was swallowed at long-on. It was 167 for 4, and when Aiden Markram patted a ball from Rachin, that again stopped a touch, back to the bowler South Africa were wobbling away like intoxicated men at 189 for 5 in 33 overs.
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