Black Caps cruise to 24-run win
The Black Caps completed a comfortable 24-run T20 warm-up win over South Africa A on Tuesday, with several encouraging displays from their new recruits in their opening fixture of their tour of South Africa.
Having been slightly below par in posting 140, the Kiwis strangled their hosts to just 116 for nine in their chase.
Young left-arm quick Mitchell McClenaghan whittled out the top-order, castling both Davy Jacobs and Stiaan van Zyl, before spinner Ronnie Hira (3-35) scooped three wickets of his own in the middle overs.
Having contained the powerful Kiwi sluggers to 140 for eight, the local scratch team would have fancied their chances of chasing their target. But, having been reduced to 23 for four by the fifth over through a series of poor shots and good straight bowling by McCleneghan, they limped to a disappointing 116 for nine in their allotted overs.
Vaughn van Jaarsveld (43) played a lone hand for the South Africa A side, while Aaron Phangiso clubbed a six and two fours off the last over to make the defeat slightly less embarrassing.
For the Kiwis, who had won the toss and elected to bat, skipper Brendon McCullum (32 off 38 balls) and Colin Munro (39 off just 27 balls) both got decent hits in the middle, while Nathan McCullum (22 not out) clubbed a few late boundaries to add some respectability to their total.
Kyle Abbott snared 4-16 in a sound spell of bowling, but the South African batsmen undid all that work with a surprisingly meek performance on an admittedly slow track.
SOUTH AFRICA A TEAM: Davy Jacobs, Mangaliso Mosehle, Stiaan van Zyl, Vaughn van Jaarsveld, Justin Ontong (captain), Dane Vilas, David Wiese, Roelof van der Merwe, Aaron Phangiso, Kyle Abbott, Hardus Viljoen.
NEW ZEALAND TEAM: Rob Nicol, Peter Fulton, Brendon McCullum (captain), James Franklin, Corey Anderson, Nathan McCullum, Jimmy Neesham, Colin Munro, Michael Bates, Mitchell McClenaghan, Ronnie Hira.
