The bail-trimming nip-backer of Matt Henry and the dipping leg-cutter of Lungi Ngidi; the devilish bouncer of Kagiso Rabada and the brutish toe-crusher of Lockie Ferguson; the switch-hit of Finn Allen and the mid-wicket shovel of Quinton de Kock. The New Zealand versus South Africa semifinal at Eden Gardens is as vibrantly colourful as the Holi festivities outside the arena on Tuesday, with varied layers of artful deception.
Apart from a mystery spinner, the two teams have everything that is valued in the format.
Power-hitters? New Zealand can rattle out the names of Glenn Phillips, Finn Allen and Tim Seifert; South Africa could match them man-for-man with Quinton de Kock, Ryan Rickelton and David Miller.
Cultured strikers? Aiden Markram, in blazing form, slashes down Rachin Ravindra, striving for his best touch.
Spin quotient? Mitchell Santner and Keshav Maharaj cancel each other out.
All-round artillery? Marco Jansen, Cole McConchie and Jimmy Neesham would battle it out, as would others such as Phillips and Corbin Bosch.
Genuine quick? Henry and Rabada would raise the pulse.
Both teams were not pre-tournaments favourites, having just lost to India at home in bilateral ties. But South Africa are undefeated in the tournament and meted out a thrashing to India. New Zealand have lost twice, to South Africa and England. Peaking at the World Cup is their trait, although the climax often ends with heartbreaks. South Africa felt the pangs two years ago; New Zealand have crashed out three times in the semifinals. One of them would experience what they have repeatedly endured, but not before a scintillating display of skills that transforms this format from a charade of fortune to a stage of new-age cricketing skills.
Take Henry’s nip-backer, for instance. It’s the same one he employs to rattle stumps in Tests. Delivered with an upright seam, the wrists snapping a wee bit at release and the ball decking back subtly rather than substantially to hit the stumps. Pathum Nissanka’s hollow eyes after a Henry brute uprooted his stumps capture the story.
The Kiwi pacer possesses a scrambled-seam ball that wobbles. He possesses an off-cutter that cuts back sharply into the torso. It’s not only the reduction of pace that batsmen fear, but the bounce too. New Zealand, though, would be praying that he returns from home after the paternity break.
But what he has, Ngidi and Rabada possess too. Ngidi has two gorgeous cutters — one comes in, the other goes away — that ran India’s batters ragged. Rabada’s basket of variations have often missed the perfect landing, but he often turns up in clutch matches and produces a spell for the ages. New Zealand would hope Lockie Ferguson, who has barely bowled in the last two games, returns to his old stomping ground, all guns blazing.
Proteas bank on pace
South Africa, befitting an undefeated side, has a better-grooved pace core, with Jansen and Bosch completing the line-up. Jansen’s lift and Bosch’s accurate yorkers have discomforted batters.
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Their opponents, though, have deeper spin gears, so much so they drew 17 overs from tweakers against Sri Lanka. South Africa have the exemplary Maharaj, but for support can only rely on Aiden Markram’s off-spin. Santner can task the primary duty to himself, or could summon Rachin, Phillips, McConchie or Ish Sodhi.
They, probably, needn’t resort to the extremes at Eden Gardens, where another belter is winking at the batsmen. It would not be as bouncy and quick as Ahmedabad, where South Africa played all but two of their games in the tournament. But on the adapting-scale, their challenges are less taxing than those facing New Zealand, who are returning to India after nearly a fortnight in Sri Lanka, where the surfaces were sluggish and the weather humid. A night game means the surface wouldn’t dry out, and if anything, dew would make the surface faster under lights.
But their under-firing top-order would not fret. Seifert has managed only 62 runs in his last four outings. Daryll Mitchell and Rachin have slackened; Allen has flat-lined. If the surface bleeds runs — as it did in the India-West Indies game — both teams have batsmen to flick on the afterburners. Allen, Seifert and Phillips are sturdy hitters who would target the short side boundaries. South Africa have a phalanx of bludgeoners, right till Bosch at No. 8.
Thus, it’s a closer contest than their journeys in the tournament suggest. South Africa have been strolling, huffing only against Afghanistan; New Zealand scraped into the last four, pipping Pakistan on net run rate. But the format’s nature is that it takes just a red hot spell or a shower of sixes to flip the script. Both sides have individual firepower. It could be Henry’s bail-trimming nip-backer or Ngidi’s dipping, drifting leg-cutter.
