New Zealand have won the toss and chosen to bowl first against South Africa in Pune, India. 

The sides have emerged as two of the most dangerous teams in this World Cup and a victory today would make either side feel much better about cementing their spot in the top four. 

Apart from the unexpected hiccup against Netherlands, South Africa have been a dominant force and have the best net run-rate (NRR) among the ten nations. Their batting lineup has been on overdrive with Quinton de Kock often converting his starts to centuries at the top of the order and Heinrich Klaasen leading the way in providing them with frankly ludicrous finishing touches. South Africa’s bowling has been impressive as well, with Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen leading the way.

New Zealand had a perfect start to the tournament but a growing number of niggles have played a factor in them sinking to consecutive defeats against India and Australia. 

New Zealand will hope to return to winning ways and not keep things for the end moment. 

While they were blown out of the park by India, the match against Australia was anything but a one-sided affair. Australia set a target of a mammoth 389 and New Zealand came within five runs of it.

It means that despite the two consecutive defeats, it hasn’t exactly been doom and gloom for New Zealand yet. Like South Africa, they have a lot of positives in their batting lineup led by the young Rachin Ravindra. Their bowling has been the factor that won them matches though, with Matt Henry and Trent Boult proving to be as efficient as ever, despite the latter arguably not having the greatest of tournaments compared to his high standards.

Source - Hindustan Times

- Agencies