Batting at No. 7, Linde smashed a 12-ball 33 which included three fours and three sixes but it came too late. South Africa were chasing 176 and by the time Linde got to the crease were 67 for 5 in the 11th over and all but out of the game. They had no partnerships higher than the opening stand and no batter other than Linde got past 19.
Contrastingly, New Zealand had a little bit of all of Prince’s ingredients for successful T20 batting. Conway’s 60 was the highest score of the match and set them up for victory, they had two partnerships of 35 runs or more and two cameos from Cole McConchie (18 off 12 balls) and Josh Clarkson (26 off nine balls) which pushed their score over 170.
Conway’s was the stand-out knock of the game, his highest score in over two years in T20Is, and provided the blueprint for how the rest should bat. While he started relatively quickly and was on 41 off 31 balls, he was forced to slow down run-scoring on a surface South Africa’s stand-in captain Keshav Maharaj said became more difficult to bat on. His next 19 runs came off the 18 balls, which illustrates the slow down, and how important his first scoring shots were on a tough pitch. “Devon played great innings, but also at a strike rate of I think about 125, which meant it was a hard-working surface,” Prince said.
McConchie, speaking afterwards, also praised Conway’s experience in being able to score runs on a pitch where some balls seemed to “stick” as he put it, which South Africa were unable to do. Though some of their batters – particularly Tony de Zorzi and Jason Smith, who were both part of their original T20 World Cup squad – will be disappointed with their performances thus far, they are also lacking their usual strengths. None of South Africa’s first-choice batters are on this tour and they have been dealt an injury blow.
Jordan Hermann, who was due to open the batting alongside Conner Esterhuizen, picked up a hamstring injury in match one. His brother Rubin was in the XI and Prince expects both to be around for some time to come.
“I’m sure he’s bitterly disappointed. It would have been nice also for the family, for him to get the opportunity to play alongside his brother,” Prince said of Jordan. “He’s played really well in SA20 over the last few years and is one of the bright young players in South Africa and we were really looking forward to seeing him on the international stage. It’s a shame that he’s got to return home, but I’m sure we’ll see some more of him in the future.”
South Africa have no reserve batters in the squad and have promoted Wiaan Mulder, who replaced the injured Eathan Bosch in the squad, to the position.
The series is currently locked at 1-1 with the third game to take place on Friday.
