Napier, New Zealand, Feb 29: Morne Morkel took five wickets and Hashim Amla hit 92 runs as South Africa coasted to a six-wicket, series-clinching win over New Zealand in the second one-day cricket international on Wednesday.
Morkel (5-38) and Lonwabo Tsotsobe (3-43), provoked a collapse which saw New Zealand slump from 163-2 in the 33rd over to be all out for an inadequate 230 in 47.3 overs. With the win, South Africa takes a 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
Brendon McCullum marked his 200th one-day international by top-scoring with 85 for New Zealand, but when he was out New Zealand lost its last six wickets for 55 runs, including 5-35 between the 30th and 40th overs.
Amla then directed a composed run chase which saw South Africa reach its winning target with almost 12 overs to spare.
South Africa was 192-4 when Amla was dismissed in the 32nd over, needing only 39 runs to clinch a match and series victory.
Captain A.B. de Villiers steered the rest of the run chase, making 31 not out and sealing the win with a casual single from the second ball of the 39th over.
“I thought we played consistently well today,” de Villiers said. “Right from the start the boys had the right attitude.
“We had a good presence in the field and Morne bowled exceptionally well and set the trend for us and the boys just followed.”
Morkel's was a remarkable bowling performance. He had 0-33 late in his spell but then sliced through New Zealand's middle and lower order to take five wickets for five runs.
Amla then made light of the run chase on a pitch on which 300 was easily achievable. He lost his opening partner, Jacques Kallis, in the third over when South Africa was only 11, but remained confident and kept up a high run-rate from the outset.
Amla found the short boundaries at McLean Park with ease, taking 24 of his first 26 runs from fours and reaching his 50 from 51 balls.
“It's always nice when someone starts well for you up the order,” de Villiers said. “It takes a lot of pressure off the middle order and we had that today, and it made it very easy for the middle order.
McCullum put on 107 for the second wicket with Martin Guptill (58) to set a solid foundation for the New Zealand innings. But he was one of three batsmen dismissed during New Zealand's batting powerplay as the innings quickly unraveled.
Kane Williamson was out for 13 in the first over of the powerplay, McCullum followed in the third over—after scoring his 85 runs from 96 balls with 11 fours and two sixes.
Jesse Ryder fell for a duck one over later as New Zealand slumped from 163-2 to 179-5 in the overs which were supposed to be the most productive of its innings.
Tsotsobe dismissed McCullum and Williamson after removing opener Rob Nicol (11) in the sixth over of the innings. The tall left-armer made up for dropping an easy caught-and-bowled chance when McCullum was on 18 and New Zealand 51-1.
Morkel then hastened the collapse, removing James Franklin, Kyle Mills, Tim Southee (28), Tarun Nethula and finally Andrew Ellis (19) to end the New Zealand innings.
He was twice on a hat trick, dismissing Franklin and Mills with successive balls, before doing the same with Southee and Nethula.
Legspinner Nethula had an eventful one-day international debut. He was bowled with the first ball of his first one-day innings, was hit for four from the first ball of his first one-day over and had two catches dropped from his bowling.
But he battled back to dismiss Amla and Duminy, South Africa's top-scorers, and to finish with 2-60 from his 10 overs.
“I guess 8-60 odd is not really acceptable so we have to have to take a good, hard look at ourselves there,” McCullum said.
“We got ourselves into a position from which we should have kicked on and got some impetus later on and got around that 300 mark. But we obviously weren't able to do so.”
The third match is in Auckland on Saturday.
