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ICC CWC Streaming, 3rd QF: SA vs NZ ( 25th Friday at 14.30 pm / 9.00 GMT )

It’s clash between the obstinate New Zealand and title favourites South Africa at Shere-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur on Friday.

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MATCH PREVIEW

By Himanshu Shekhar in Mirpur, Dhaka

The entry of the two teams into the quarter-finals has been quite an unique journey. New Zealand defeated their group toppers Pakistan in the league stage but since then, have failed to show any further improvement and went down to Sri Lanka and Australia in a listless manner and finished fourth in their group.

On the other hand South Africa's story has been unique in its own way. The only group match South Africa lost was against England when they failed to defend a paltry total.

New Zealand have quite a few players who might be playing their last ICC Cricket World Cup. Scott Styris is one such man and hopefully the Kiwi all-rounder will be keen to extend his swansong onto a bigger platform.

The Kiwis are boosted by the return of skipper Daniel Vettori. Much will be expected from him as New Zealand will be heavily relying on his spin prowess.

Skipper Daniel Vettori has also confirmed that Brendon McCullum is completely fit for the Friday's clash. "Brendon is fine, he had a bad knee but now he is okay," Vettori said ahead of the match.

Add to it the bit of history and one will sense that there is something in this ICC Cricket World Cup air which makes you difficult to believe what looks pretty obvious. Black Caps have won both the previous World Cup encounters (2003 in Johannesburg and 2007 in Grenada) against South Africa.

On the other side of the battlefield, skipper Graeme Smith has stopped short from flexing his muscles and has rated New Zealand as "street smart" team. So the likes of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, AB de Villiers, Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla are not taking anything for granted.

South Africa too is not short of memories in Dhaka. Hansie Cronje's team lifted the Wills International Cup here in Dhaka way back in the November of 1998. Jacques Kallis is the only player in the team, who was the part of that memorable victory.

A look at the two team sheet clearly suggests that South Africa is the outright favourite but will that be good enough.
 
Why don't we wait for Friday?

South Africa vs New Zealand in ODIs/World Cup

ODIs

South Africa have won 30 and lost 17 out of 51 contested - winning % 63.82 for South Africa and 36.17 % for New Zealand. (NR 4)

World Cup

New Zealand have won three and lost two out of five played against South Africa - winning % 60.00.

Overall World Cup

South Africa have won 30 and lost 14 out of 46 played - winning %  67.39 (Tied 2).

New Zealand have won 39 and lost 28 out of 68 played (NR 1) - winning %  58.20      

Approaching milestones
- Abraham de Villiers (318 at an average of 106.00 in four games) needs 72 runs to complete his 400 runs in the present competition.

- Only three South Africans have accomplished the feat of amassing 400 runs in a World Cup competition - Jacques Kallis (485 in 2006-07), Graeme Smith (443 in 2006-07) and Peter Kirsten (410 in 1991-92).

- In case of a hundred, Villiers (3) would become the first South African to post four hundreds at the World Cup.  He would be joining the leading centurions - Sachin Tendulkar (6), Sourav Ganguly (4), Ricky Ponting (4) and Mark Waugh (4).

- James Franklin (961) needs 39 runs to complete his 1000 runs.

- Ross Taylor (2976) requires 24 runs to complete 3000 runs in ODIs.

- Jesse Ryder (939) requires 61 runs to complete 1000 runs in ODIs.

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