World Cup 2019: Five close encounters of the tournament so far

#1 New Zealand Vs South Africa at Birmingham

A Captain's innings from Kane Williamson took his team home

This was a do or die match for South Africa as one more slip up would take them to the rim of elimination. New Zealand, on the other hand, had three wins against the lesser fancied teams in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis lost an important toss and had to bat first on bowler-friendly conditions. After the early loss of Quinton de Kock, the South African innings simply failed to take off. Hashim Amla did notch up his first fifty of the competition but was a tad bit slow in constructing his 83-ball 55 run knock.

South Africa’s run-rate never crossed 4 RPO until the halfway mark. A late flourish from Aiden Markram (38), Rassie van der Dussen (67) and David Miller (36) helped South Africa to reach a competitive total of 241 in their allotted 49 overs.

New Zealand lost Colin Munro quite early but Martin Guptill was in cracking form. However, his innings ended in a bizarre fashion when he slipped and knocked over his stumps to get out hit wicket to Andile Phehlukwayo in the 15th over.

Chris Morris then removed Ross Taylor and Tom Latham in successive overs to make it 80/4 as South Africa found themselves well in the game and on course to register an important win.

However, Kane Williamson was unperturbed at one end while wickets kept tumbling at the other. He reached 50 off 72 balls and in the process kept Chris Morris, Lungi Ngidi and Imran Tahir at bay. Yet, Morris struck again with the wicket of James Neesham.

Faf du Plessis was quick to bring on Imran Tahir to bowl to the new batsman Colin de Grandhomme who has a history of struggling to spinners at the start of his innings and the last over of Imran Tahir could be touted as the turning point of the match.

First, David Miller dropped a tough chance offered by Grandhomme and off the last ball of his spell, Tahir evoked a faint bottom edge off Williamson's bat but the South Africans did not appeal as an opportunity to tighten the screws went begging.

Williamson lived to fight another day and scored his 12th ODI century while Grandhomme, at the other end, was severe on Andile Phehlukwayo who leaked 72 runs in 8 overs. The pair of Williamson and Grandhomme added 91 runs for the sixth wicket as South Africa were left to lament the lack of a sixth bowler.

Grandhomme's dismissal took the game till the end as the Black Caps needed 12 runs off 7 balls. However, a dab from Williamson trickled away to the third man fence before he kneeled down to deposit Phehlukwayo over mid-wicket for six as New Zealand now needed just a run to win.

Williamson smacked the next delivery past point for a boundary as New Zealand celebrated yet another victory while South Africa were yet again left to lick their wounds post a tough loss.