New Zealand are more often than not considered the dark horses whenever an ICC tournament comes around but more often than not the Black Caps almost always spring a surprise. Earlier, their semifinal opponents South Africa were kept in the same bracket but in recent years, the Proteas have morphed into a true cricketing power—winning the World Test Championship in 2025 while coming mighty close to defeating India in the 2024 T20 World Cup final but ultimately falling short.
In the this edition of the T20 World Cup, however, the Aiden Markram-led side have been a force to be reckoned with, snapping India’s unbeaten streak in the Super 8s and then entering the semifinals against the Kiwis as the only unbeaten side in the tournament. In contrast, the Mitchell Santner-led side stuttered their way into the last 4, edging through in the last second after Pakistan failed to get over the line against Sri Lanka on net run-rate.
Santner acknowledged the underdog tag coming into the semifinal at Kolkata but also said that in a knockout game, anything can happen. “Yeah, I think it’s whether you want to call it the underdogs or not, I think for us it’s everyone’s goal with that throughout the tournament is to get to the stage. We are here now and we back ourselves in one-off games against most teams. We have to adapt as quick as we can to what’s in front of us. South Africa look like a very good outfit as they have shown. But I guess they are in the same boat as us now – it’s one game and you are into the final. It’s going to be the same for India and England as well. So, I guess conditions have changed a lot for us where we’ve been. Chennai, Ahmedabad, Sri Lanka, and again we’re in Kolkata, we haven’t been there before. We’ll address conditions tomorrow and see what it looks like but yeah, I think at this stage, it’s just a knockout game and that’s it at the end of the day and whoever really turns up is it’s going to get through,” he said at the pre-match press conference at the Eden Gardens on Tuesday.
“It’s probably two teams that have been in and around it for a long time I guess we know the heartbreak of South Africa two years ago. I think they are playing some very good cricket and it has shown throughout this this tournament. We have been playing some decent cricket as well. So, I think, yeah, I guess it’s whoever turns up on the day tomorrow, whoever assesses conditions the best they can….We know South Africa are going to be a threat, as they’ve shown, and we’re just going to go out there and try to put some pressure on them at different stages of the game and they’re going to do the same for us. I guess you’re not quite there, especially not quite a final, but it’s a massive game and you can do those things well for a long period of time and see what happens. But South Africa are a very well-balanced side as we’ve seen throughout this tournament,” he added.
The two teams have already met in this tournament where the Proteas had run away with a 7-wicket win, courtesy of a 4-wicket haul by Marco Jansen and a blistering 86 by Markram. Santner said that the team had discussed about that match ahead of the semifinal and are looking to rectify the errors.
“Yes. The Ahmedabad surface was a good one and South Africa have got a lot of power. I think the powerplay for us with the ball was you know where they really got away to a flier. So I guess every time we play, we haven’t played the perfect game in this tournament. I think there’s no hiding or secrets about what South Africa bring and then you know, for us. They’ll probably roll out the same team, a very good team at that. So again, it’s all up to, I guess, the surface and adapting as quick as we can. But we know if you can get into that top order but their middle order packs a lot of power as well so might not be trying to bowl them it might be trying to get an out of overs and trying to it might be 180 is a good score instead of 220. But I guess we’ll wait and see. But yeah, I think they have kind of all bases covered and that’s why they’re undefeated in this tournament,” he said.
