{"id":8210,"date":"2012-02-22T14:24:48","date_gmt":"2012-02-22T12:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/02\/cricket-south-africa-clinch-t20-thriller-to-win-series\/"},"modified":"2012-02-22T14:24:48","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T12:24:48","slug":"cricket-south-africa-clinch-t20-thriller-to-win-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/cricket-south-africa-clinch-t20-thriller-to-win-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket-South Africa clinch T20 thriller to win series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocatio\/spann\">Feb 22 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa clinched the Twenty20<br \/>\ninternational series against New Zealand after Marchant de Lange<br \/>\nclaimed two wickets in an eventful final over to seal a<br \/>\nthrilling three-run victory in the third and final match in<br \/>\nAuckland on Wednesday.<span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Having restricted South Africa to a modest 165 for seven at<br \/>\nEden Park, New Zealand cruised to 65 without loss inside six<br \/>\novers but a middle order collapse eventually left them needing<br \/>\nseven runs off the last over with five wickets in hand.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Playing in his second Twenty20 international, 21-year-old de<br \/>\nLang conceded a single off the first delivery of the final over<br \/>\nbut removed Nathan McCullum and Doug Bracewell for ducks with<br \/>\nthe third and fifth deliveries.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Needing six off the last delivery, New Zealand were handed a<br \/>\nbreak as de Lange delivered a front-foot no-ball, which James<br \/>\nFranklin scored a single off.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A four off the last ball would have sealed victory for the<br \/>\nhosts but Tim Southee could not even make contact with the<br \/>\nfree-hit delivery which de Lang fired past his off-stump.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>For New Zealand, Jesse Ryder top scored with 52 but Rob<br \/>\nNicol was the top performer, claiming two wickets, taking as<br \/>\nmany catches and assisting in a crucial run out before returning<br \/>\nto hit a brisk 33.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Earlier put into bat, South Africa found going tough against<br \/>\nNew Zealand&#8217;s disciplined bowlers and rode on cameos from JP<br \/>\nDuminy (38), Hashim Amla (33) and skipper AB de Villiers (29) to<br \/>\nreach 165 for seven wickets.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Opener Richard Levi (11), who blasted the fastest Twenty20<br \/>\ninternational century in the previous match, could not replicate<br \/>\nhis Hamilton performance while Albie Morkel (10) failed to<br \/>\njustify his promotion to the number three slot.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Duminy looked in great touch but was unfortunate to be run<br \/>\nout when he backed up too far at the non-striker&#8217;s end and<br \/>\nbowler Nicol collected the de Villiers straight drive and<br \/>\nwhipped off the bails.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Feb 22 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa clinched the Twenty20 international series against New Zealand after Marchant de Lange claimed two wickets in an eventful final over to seal a thrilling three-run victory in the third and final match in Auckland on Wednesday. Having restricted South Africa to a modest 165 for seven at Eden Park, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-8210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8210\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}