Hamish Marshall and Scott Styris shared a record third-wicket partnership to guide New Zealand to a six-wicket win over South Africa in Wednesday’s limited-overs cricket international at Carisbrook.
New Zealand took a 3-1 lead in the six-match series when Marshall and Styris put on 126 — a third-wicket record for New Zealand against South Africa — to help it to 264-4 in reply to 259-7.
Marshall made 74, his fifth half-century in 14 one-day internationals, and Styris scored 69 from 62 balls to give New Zealand its third consecutive win over the South Africans.
The New Zealanders can’t lose the series and stand one match away from gaining its first ever series win against South Africa.
For the second time in the series, Chris Cairns hit a six to complete the win and remained 29 not-out off 22 balls.
Skipper Stephen Fleming, who won the toss and asked South Africa to bat, made 51 and shared a 71-run stand for the first wicket with Michael Papps.
Fleming became the first New Zealander to score 1 000 runs in one-day matches against South Africa, following on strongly from his innings of 30, 108, and 43 in the first three matches.
Styris and Marshall managed New Zealand’s carefully measured chase for the winning runs. Though Styris scored 69 from only 62, more than 30 of his first 50 runs came from singles.
He only lashed out late in his innings, hitting a six to the longest boundary on the ground, among 15 runs off a single over from Makhaya Ntini.
Marshall also scored through careful placements and aggressive running, taking 28 of his 74 runs from boundaries, before he was brilliantly caught at square leg by Jacques Kallis off Ntini when New Zealand was only 30 runs from victory.
Earlier, Jacques Rudolph top-scored with 70, Nicky Boje made 50 and the pair added 84 for the fifth wicket as South Africa set New Zealand a demanding total.
The South African innings was twice disrupted by rain but the interruptions weren’t long enough to reduce the match from 50 overs per side.
Rain and high winds had already forced the to be postponed by a day.
Rudolph returned to the South African team after missing the third match with flu and took his 70 runs from only 71 balls. He brought up an aggressive half century from only 53 deliveries.
Boje justified promotion to number five in the South African order, reaching 50 from 45 balls in 67 minutes but was out without adding to his score.
Of the remaining South African batsmen, skipper Graeme Smith scored 37 at the top of the order and wicketkeeper Mark Boucher 35 from 28 balls in an entertaining innings near the close. Boucher and Rudolph put on 64 for the sixth wicket.
Jacob Oram was the most successful of the New Zealand bowlers, taking 3-51 from 10 overs. Newcomer Michael Mason took 1-46 and Chris Cairns 1-42 from 10 over spells. – Sapa-AP