South Africa celebrate Wednesday's win.

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De Villiers lauds de Lange’s BMT

Proteas captain AB de Villiers was pleased to have his decision to bowl Marchant de Lange for the crucial final over of the third and final Twenty20 International reap reward on Wednesday.

Locked at one win apiece heading into the series decider, New Zealand and South Africa slugged it out across a remarkably tight affair. In the end, though, there could be only one winner, with the tourists clinching the Eden Park humdinger by three runs.

Batting first across the hard and fast conditions on offer in Auckland, South Africa were well on course for a formidable total in excess of 180 after reaching 121 for three inside 13 overs. A middle-order wobble, however, soon brought the quick departures of de Villiers, JP Duminy, Justin Ontong and Johan Botha.

With the initial graft done by Hashim Amla at the top of the knock and de Villiers and Duminy’s 62-run alliance somewhat wasted, the Proteas settled on 162 for seven.

In reply, the Kiwis were coasting on the back of Rob Nicol and Martin Guptill’s 65-run stand from just six overs. Jesse Ryder, back in the team after a stint on the sidelines nursing an injury, kept the charge going strong with a fine half-century. Meanwhile, Brendon McCullum chipped in with a handy cameo.

Needing a mere 25 runs to win from the last five overs and with all of seven wickets in hand, easy victory was the Kiwis’ for the taking. However, some shoddy shot selection from Ryder and Nathan McCullum promptly had the opposition back in the contest.

Shortly after reaching the third half-ton of his T20I career, the left-handed Ryder dinked a tame catch to short fine-leg. Four balls later McCullum did the same as de Lange’s final throes got off to a successful start. Panicky and scrambling for seven runs from six balls to win the match, the Black Caps floundered at every turn as Tim Southee and Doug Bracewell swung and missed. Afforded a late chance by a de Lange no-ball, the tail-enders still couldn’t seal the deal.

Triumphant and delighted that his decision to have the lanky pace ace bowl the final over rather than seamer Albie Morkel or spinner JP Duminy, de Villiers emerged a proud tactician.

“I truly believe Marchant has got what it takes. He has the big match temperament we want to see. We need guys like him doing well. The way he bowled at the death was outstanding. We are very proud. This was an amazing, amazing effort. The guys did extremely well,” enthused the South African captain.

“It was really tough batting first and assessing what was a good total. We lost momentum in the middle overs, unfortunately we had a slow start with ball in hand but I told the guys to hang in there. I think the whole team has was it takes and we managed to get a few wickets to turn things around. Johan Botha bowled well and got Jesse under pressure at the right time. We feel very good about the win.”

Defeated skipper Brendon McCullum was left to rue Ryder’s departure at a crucial juncture and admitted that the rest of the batsmen were premature in their collective bid to finish the game with a flourish. De Villiers’ choice to bowl his three spinners - Duminy, Botha and Peterson - for half of the 20 overs impressed McCullum, who only afforded his three slow bowlers a eight overs between them.

“I guess the game was in our hands for majority of the evening but South Africa were composed and continued to apply pressure on us. Theirs was a below-par total and for the majority of our batting, we were on top but we didn’t do well in the pressure situations. It’s disappointing,” lamented McCullum.

“In the last four to five overs, we tried to finish the game too early instead of taking it through to the end. It slowed up our pace and we lost key wickets. It was smart play from AB. Jesse was brilliant for most of the innings but he is disappointed that he couldn’t finish it off. Not just him, everyone is disappointed, but credit to South Africa.”

The teams will next lock horns for three ODIs, the first of which gets underway on Saturday. Three Tests follow the limited-overs leg of the tour.