The first semi-final of the 2026 T20 World Cup took place today at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. New Zealand faced South Africa, who had looked the most impressive team at the tournament prior to today. This post looks back at the match.
THE SOUTH AFRICA INNINGS
South Africa lost two early wickets before staging a bit of a revival. They reached 77-3 before Dewald Brevis and David Miller were both out at that score. Marco Jansen, the very tall left handed seam bowling all rounder, breathed some life into South Africa by hitting an undefeated 55 from 30 balls. He received support from Tristan Stubbs (29), but was starved of strike in the final over of the innings. South Africa in the end had a score of 169-8, much better than had looked on when they were 77-5, but probably not good enough.
THE NEW ZEALAND CHASE
Finn Allen and Tim Seifert opened the batting for New Zealand, and right from the word go they made the Proteas score look downright risible. By the time Kagiso Rabada bowled Seifert for 58 (33) the score was 117-1 from 9.1 overs, and the match was a good as settled. Remarkably it took a mere 3.4 overs more for New Zealand to seal the victory, with nine wickets and 7.1 overs to spare. The architect was Allen. At the start of the 13th over New Zealand were 149-1 with Allen 76 not out from 28 balls. The next five deliveries, bowled by Jansen, were dispatched for 4,4,6,6,4 to take Allen to 100* (33 balls, 10 fours, 8 sixes). Jansen only just escaped conceding as many with the ball as he had scored with the bat – his figures were 2.5-0-53-0. Kagiso Rabada, 3-0-28-1 for an ER of 9.33, was the only Protea bowler to go for under 11 an over. New Zealand have served due notice that they will pose a serious threat to whoever wins tomorrows match between co-hosts India and England. England are the likelier of the two sides in action tomorrow to be really dangerous – they have got to the semi-finals without ever finding peak form but somehow doing enough. For the Proteas this will be a sickeningly familiar feeling – they have a long history of being very impressive in the early stages of tournaments and then coming unstuck on a big ‘winner takes all’ day.
PHOTOGRAPHS
The weather continues to be pleasant here in Norfolk, and I have big photo gallery to end with…
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