South Africa vs New Zealand, 5th Match at Harare, ZIM T20 Tri-Series, Jul 22 2025 - Match Result

4:13pm That will be all from us for today, folks. Do join us for all the cricket that is lined up around the world in the next few hours and days. Until next time, from Raghav and myself (Shashwat), this is goodbye. Take care, everyone!

Tim Seifert, Player of the Match: Always good from a confidence point of view to take a team to victory. We have been playing good cricket, different batters have chipped in, and that is good for the side. They (pitches) have all been fairly similar. Zimbabwe have taller guys, South African guys are a bit skiddier. They have a good bowling attack, and it was a good game. Adapting to the conditions. One of those wickets where you never feel like you are in. If it is a flat one, you can push, but on wickets like that, you have to graft sometimes.

Mitchell Santner, New Zealand captain: The way we bowled in the powerplay was outstanding. The quality they (South Africa) have at the top, we were able to squeeze. Able to chip away at the wickets, which is something we have done in all games. We thought it (the pitch) would play better. But it was the swing - we got a lot of swing, which is nice to see. If it is swinging, we have three guys (who can do it very well). If you can take wickets in the powerplay, you put yourself in a very good position. We did not pick wickets, but restricted them. Very clinical from the bowlers, and with the bat, it was professional. As a spinner, always nice to see the ball spin. (On the game against Zimbabwe) We are pretty set, but nice to see them (Foulkes and O'Rourke) come in and bowl extremely well. There might be an opportunity to change it up a little and then see how we go against South Africa (based on the pitch we are playing on).

Rassie van der Dussen, South Africa captain: (On batting first and the conditions) We expected that, we just were not good enough. The ball is doing a bit up front, we knew that. The challenge was to find a way to negate that. Credit to their bowlers, they kept us under pressure, and we lost wickets throughout. (On Pretorius batting in the middle order) Experimental phase, looking at him in the middle. We know how cleanly he can hit the ball (at the top of the order). Unfortunately, he could not get going today (against their slower bowlers). Perfect game for that (to see how players fare in different roles). Muthusamy put in a great performance on a personal level. It was a low score, so no real scoreboard pressure to work with, but he still found a way. We were not good enough (today) and that is the disappointing bit. (On plans for the final) Just find our best combination. We were off the boil today, and that is the disappointing part. Make sure we are fresh and ready to go on Saturday and hit the ground running. If we get it right on Saturday, we can still lift the trophy.

Johan: "Another example of the saying "dropping catches, loses matches". Seifert was dropped with his score on 0."

3:56pm A calm and comfortable run-chase in the end. NZ knew they were not chasing many and broke the back of the chase with an enterprising powerplay, registering the highest powerplay score in the tri-series. Conway could not capitalize further, but Seifert could and he finished with an unbeaten 66, which means both of NZ's openers now have decent scores under their belt. Mitchell got a few away too, and the Kiwis look a well-oiled unit heading into Saturday.

South Africa did experiment with their bowling unit this game and it did not quite come off. Their spin-heavy ploy meant they did not have as many fast-bowling resources to exploit the conditions. It did not help that Coetzee was expensive, and that, plus dropping Seifert when he was on zero, meant they never really mustered any challenge.

Maphaka from around the wicket