South Africa will be out to wrap their one-day series against New Zealand with a match to spare when the sides head to Hamilton. Join The Roar for live scores of the fourth ODI from 12pm (AEDT).
The Proteas have been dominant on their tour to the land of the long white cloud, winning three of the four matches played and barely putting a foot wrong.
They have adjusted to the conditions quickly and despite stumbling during the second and third match of the series, the Proteas have only lost one match which didn’t convince anyone they were struggling.
It started with a T20, where they won by a massive 76 runs with the Kiwis under pressure to turn things around in what is one of their biggest home series in some time.
As was expected, captain AB De Villiers has been in good touch and has been ably backed up by Quinton De Kock.
They have made New Zealand pay every game for not getting their bowling 100 per cent correct and that was nowhere more evident than in the third match of the series at Wellington as the Proteas racked up 271 on a pitch where the par score was lucky to be more than 200.
After a win in the second match, the Kiwis looked to be back in the series, but they were blown off the park as De Villiers scored 85, taking Tim Southee and Lockie Ferguson to the cleaners with both going for more than six runs per over.
The New Zealand batting crumbled in reply, and not for the first time. They were quickly 2 for 11 before Kane Williamson started a recovery but was quickly dismissed for 23. Colin de Grandhomme top scored with 34 and to put it simply, they were never in the chase.
All of the South African bowlers came to the party with Dwaine Pretorius leading the way, taking 3 for 5 from 5.2 overs. Kagiso Rabada and Wayne Parnell continued a good run of form to get things started, though, picking up a pair of wickets each.
With a Test series still to come, New Zealand can ill-afford to go down and set the fifth match up as a demoralising dead rubber.
Prediction
As much as New Zealand need this win for their own confidence, the Proteas are looking good and the Kiwi batting, as it has done for some time, looks to be vulnerable once you get past Williamson.
South Africa to wrap the series up.
Be sure to join The Roar for live scores of the fourth ODI in Hamilton from 12pm (AEDT) and don’t forget to add your own comments in the section below.
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