Marco Jansen of South Africa celebrates with teammates Ryan Rickleton and Aiden Markram (Photo by Sameer Ali/Getty Images)
South Africa and New Zealand will clash with one another in a low-key second semi-final in the high-scoring Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Wednesday. Both teams have done enough to make it to the knockouts but also looked a bit scratchy at times. RG analyses their strengths and weaknesses ahead of the key encounter.
South Africa
South Africa have had an easy road to the semi-final. Their top-order clicked against Afghanistan and the fast bowlers got the early breakthroughs. They were lucky to get a point in the washout against Australia – their toughest opponents in the group and they hammered a beleaguered and listless England unit at Karachi.
South Africa’s top-order has got some runs and that will stand them in good stead against New Zealand on what is the best batting surface in the competition. Lahore has a batting average of 39.6 and strike rate of 103.8 in the tournament suggesting that not only have teams scored big but have also got their runs at a fair clip at the venue. Ryan Rickleton hammered a hundred against Afghanistan while Rassie van der Dussen, Heinrich Klaasen, Temba Bavuma and Aiden Markram have all registered fifties in the competition.
Van der Dussen will be the key at number 3 for South Africa. He has already smashed a couple of quick fifties in the tournament and has a career average of close to 50 coupled with a strike rate of 86.6 across 64 matches.
Heinrich Klaasen is an excellent player of spin and his battle with Mitchell Santner and Michael Bracewell will be key in the middle overs. Klaasen has an average of 45.7 and strike rate of 120.6 against the slower bowlers.
South Africa also boast of the best pace unit in the competition. The combined bowling average of their quicks is the best in the tournament (18.68). They also have the best wicket-taking propensity with the best strike rate (23.1). Wiaan Mulder has been the pick of their bowlers with five dismissals at an economy of under 4! Marco Jansen has been the most prolific wicket-taker since 2023 with 43 scalps in 23 matches at a strike rate of 27.7.
New Zealand
New Zealand have made it to another knockout match in a big ICC event. They were the finalists of the 2015 and 2019 World Cups and the semi-finalist of the 2023 edition.
The Kiwis have had a mixed bag in the 2025 Champions Trophy. The batters won them the contest against Pakistan at Karachi before the bowlers set up the match against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi. However, the batting collapsed in spin-friendly conditions against a high-quality Indian unit in Dubai.
Tom Latham is the leading run-getter for New Zealand in the tournament having already registered a hundred and a fifty. However, the two key batters on a flat Lahore surface would be Rachin Ravindra and Glenn Phillips. Ravindra has scored 1088 runs in 27 innings since 2023 at an average of 41.8 and strike rate of 108.9. He was New Zealand’s highest scorer in the 2023 World Cup in India. Phillips has a strike rate of 146.2 in the death overs in ODIs since 2023 – the highest in this phase for New Zealand and is destructive match-winner in the lower-order.
Matt Henry will spearhead the pace attack – he is the leading wicket-taker of the tournament with 8 wickets at 15.5 apiece. Will O’Rourke has also been impressive with six wickets while Michael Bracewell has controlled the middle overs with an economy of just 4.13. Skipper, Mitchell Santner has 16 wickets at an economy of 4.8 in ODIs since 2023 and will partner Bracewell in choking the South African batters in the middle overs. His battle will David Miller could be key in the final 15 overs – Miller has an average of 51 and strike rate of 102 against left-arm spin in ODIs since 2021.
Nikhil Narain is a die-hard cricket romantic, published author, and has worked for some of the leading digital websites and broadcasters in India and overseas. An alumnus of the London School of Economics, Nikhil's forte is using data and numbers creatively to weave interesting stories and revolutionize the way cricket statistics are generated and analyzed.
