South Africa's must win match saw the bowlers rising to the occasion and despite New Zealand trying to get the game away, could not quite while they were batting at Centurion in the Group B match in the ICC Champions Trophy.
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After the defeat against Sri Lanka, South African captain, Graeme Smith, once again boldly decided to bowl first. New Zealand tried to inject more purpose into their batting than they have in the recently concluded Compaq Cup in Sri Lanka. Beating India in the warm up would have also helped boost their confidence.
The New Zealand innings rallied largely around Ross Taylor's seventy-one as Wayne Parnell struck at the heart of the New Zealand batting to remove Jesse Ryder and Martin Guptill. While New Zealand did not lose wickets in a heap initially, they struggled to break the shackles. But every time they appeared to do so, the likes of Taylor were forced back into consolidation on the back of falling wickets.
When New Zealand appeared to find some momentum in the partnership between Taylor and Grant Elliot, Parnell came back to strike once more, this time as New Zealand barely crossed the 200 mark. With the wickets crashing in the end, New Zealand's much wanted acceleration never arrived.
While Jacques Kallis and Albie Morkel made amends for the previous game's follies with the ball, Roelof van der Merwe was particularly impressive upon the match, bowling his spinners to create doubts in the mind of the batsmen and while conceding just thirty-five runs and taking two wickets in his ten overs.
Parnell proved expensive, his eight wickets yielding fifty-seven runs, but with his first five wicket haul in ODIs, Parnell has given the team a real chance to redeem themselves.
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