END OF OVER:45 | 18 Runs | NZ: 280/3 | RR: 6.22
- Martin Guptill180 (138b)
- Luke Ronchi1 (1b)
- Imran Tahir10-2-56-2
- Wayne Parnell7-1-44-0
Right then. Guptill's mind-blowing innings, apart from delivering a win, has kept the series alive and set up what should be a cracker deciding final ODI at Eden Park in Auckland. The last time the two teams met there was nearly two years ago, and it produced what was arguably the match of the 2015 World Cup, and one of the more indelible moments in World Cup, or even, cricket history. It is with a lot of history behind them that Auckland will welcome the two teams back. Hope to see you all then. Do join us on Saturday. Until then, it's goodbye from us. Thank you for joining us.
Jackie: "Turns out that was a good toss to lose, although with Guppy being on fire like that it may not have made much difference"
Alamin: "4th highest score in chase! Guptill, you beauty"
Must Hamid: "SA Won 1st & 3rd ODI while NZ won 2nd & 4th ODI. Going by the Odd-Even pattern, SA should win the decider !!"
Must Hamid: "All the matches having an individual Score in 170s (170-179) in the second innings are played by Australia. This match could have been an exception but thanks to Guptill who scored 180 for keeping the record still alive "
Guptill - We just kept talking about taking it as deep as we can. It was important to rotate the strike and then accelerate in the end. Myself and Ross had a good partnership.
Martin Guptill is the Man of the Match.
Kane Williamson - Guppy was unbelievable. Probably the best knock I have seen on wicket that wasn't easy. At the halfway stage, when we reflected on it, we would have certainly liked to restrict them to much lesser. But Martin came out and played a special innings. And Ross Taylor also did well to take the pressure of him. Overall, I think the guys did pretty well. South Africa bat deep and we would have liked to do well towards the end when we bowled. AB is probably the best player in the world. On this surface, we would have liked to make it a little more difficult for him, so we have to do our homework going into the next game.Every game in this series has been different, as have the grounds and the surfaces. It is important to go into Eden park and make improvements. Batting was great but there is room for improvement. It was nice to have a few guys back and get over the line. Martin came back and did what he does the best which is hit the cricket ball.
AB de Villiers - We have to analyse where we went wrong. We struggled tog et partnerships going and it was difficult to get momentum going. Fantastic innings by Martin, but there are areas we definitely need to improve. I was confident of the total we got. We needed to get Martin out, but we just could not create enough opportunities to get him out. Imran bowled really well tonight. The conditions change in ODI cricket - 100 overs are a lot of time. I would not say we had the worse or the better of the conditions. We were just outplayed. It's 2-2, so not all is done and dusted. Big final coming at Eden Park, hopefully, we can do well there.
9.35pm Guptill soaks in a generous applause from all around. Gets a standing ovation for an innings that will go down as one of the finest in recent times. The South Africans, too, applaud him for the knock. What an innings this has been. A true masterclass. Right up there with the World Cup double century, if not better. Guptill took on the bowlers at will. When he wanted to launch them, he was able to, when he wanted to crunch a drive, he managed to get right to the pitch of the ball and play it with all of the elegance he could muster. And on the very rare occasion that he skewed something off the splice, it evaded South Africa's best fielders and their best efforts. But Guptill deserved to stay till the end and finish this off. And not to forget Ross Taylor's contribution. He did not play the prettiest of knocks, struggled for the most parts, but full marks to him for grinding it out and making sure wickets did not fall. It enabled Guptill to not worry about wickets in hand and express himself and how he expressed himself, with an innings for the ages.
Guptill finishes with the highest second-innings score by a New Zealand batsman and the fourth overall, behind Shane Watson (185 not out), MS Dhoni (183 not out) and Virat Kohli (183). His 11 sixes are the joint second-highest. South Africa have been thoroughly outplayed in this game. If they were in it for at least parts of it during the first innings, they were nowhere in the picture in the second. A forgettable night for them ends with South Africa conceding the No. 1 ranking to Australia.
Kiran: "If one batsman scores more than 64% of your target by using up just 46% of the deliveries and stands not out, then result is in your bag for sure"
END OF OVER:44 | 5 Runs | NZ: 262/3 (18 runs required from 36 balls, RR: 5.95, RRR: 3.00)
- Martin Guptill163 (133b)
- Luke Ronchi0 (0b)
- Wayne Parnell7-1-44-0
- Imran Tahir9-2-38-2
END OF OVER:43 | 3 Runs 1 Wkt | NZ: 257/3 (23 runs required from 42 balls, RR: 5.97, RRR: 3.28)
- Martin Guptill158 (127b)
- Imran Tahir9-2-38-2
- Wayne Parnell6-1-39-0
LRPL Taylor c Amla b Imran Tahir 66 (140m 97b 7x4 1x6) SR: 68.04
Long-on comes in..
John: "Maybe SA bowlers can do better by bowling under-hand. I hear that's quite popular with the NZ folk."
END OF OVER:42 | 10 Runs | NZ: 254/2 (26 runs required from 48 balls, RR: 6.04, RRR: 3.25)
- Martin Guptill157 (126b)
- Ross Taylor64 (92b)
- Wayne Parnell6-1-39-0
- Chris Morris9-0-54-0
Guptill's score is now the highest second-innings score by a New Zealand batsman.