NZ vs SA, ICC World Cup 2023: New Zealand and South Africa face conundrum in Pune – to chase or to not chase

How do you play a sport? Any sport for that matter. Do you play it to your strengths or do you attempt to preserve it away out of your opponent’s strengths?

On Wednesday, earlier than South Africa and New Zealand tackle one another within the ODI World Cup on the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune, this might be a thought experiment enjoying within the minds of each side. 

The precept in play is constructed on two counter-trends – South Africa is irrepressible on the subject of setting targets on this World Cup, whereas there isn’t a higher facet than New Zealand on the subject of chasing in World Cup historical past. 

The Proteas have bludgeoned opposition bowlers once they have batted first, scoring greater than 300 each single time. But they’ve struggled whereas chasing, tumbling to a defeat towards Netherlands, whereas scrapping to a one-wicket win towards Pakistan.

Over the final two years, South Africa averages 6.37 runs per over (RPO) batting first. The quantity dips to six.16 when it bats second. In this World Cup, the autumn has been much more drastic – 7.60 RPO batting first to five.30 whereas chasing. 

The South African batters, who’ve scored extra sixes and fours than every other facet, have discovered the strain of chasing laborious to cope with, regardless of the affect of dew in a number of venues.

New Zealand, alternatively, is a facet not like others. No crew has gained extra video games chasing within the World Cup than the Kiwis. In truth, they’re the one facet within the World Cup – amongst these to have performed 20 or extra matches – to have a greater win-loss ratio whereas batting second than first. 

No crew has gained the toss and elected to chase on extra events within the World Cup than the Black Caps (33). Their win-loss ratio in such matches is 2.300, far forward of the second-best crew on this regard (amongst these to have performed 20 or extra matches).

New Zealand additionally collectively holds the report, together with India, for essentially the most variety of consecutive matches gained by chasing within the ODI World Cup (5), which the Kiwis achieved of their run to the ultimate in 2015.

New Zealand’s affinity to search out targets continued on this World Cup, with the crew registering snug run-chases towards defending champion England and Bangladesh.

Against Australia, in its final match, New Zealand almost pulled off the most important chase within the historical past of the World Cup when it got here 5 runs wanting Australia’s mammoth 388.

With the 2 sides preferring differing modes of operation, this brings us again to our thought experiment – do you hedge your bets in your robust swimsuit or do you’re taking your opponent to an uneasy terrain, together with you?

New Zealand skipper Tom Latham although underplayed the relevance of the toss and the resultant resolution, which may decide the results of the match.

“Whether you’re batting first, whether you’re bowling first, you’ve got to do it well. We’re going to come up with the decision of what’s going to be best for us in terms of how we want to approach this game. 

“Sometimes you could look at the opposition and what they want to do, but for us, it’s always been about focusing on us and what’s best for us as a team. So, we’ll discuss it during training and come up with a decision,” stated Latham. 

South African batter Rassie van der Dussen provided his perspective on his facet’s various success batting first and second. 

“I think, yes, we have a ‘blueprint’ for batting first. But it’s about the fundamentals of building a 50-over innings. It’s been big for us to set the base at the top and really give guys like Aiden Markram and David [Miller] the platform to be at their most destructive. And that’s something that’s been working well for us.

“It’s almost a positive for us because we’ve been so good at batting first. The challenge is for us to emulate that when we’re batting second. Against Netherlands, we couldn’t manage that. The other night [against Pakistan] we managed it at stages,” stated van der Dussen.

With dew set to play an enormous position in Pune – as witnessed in Afghanistan’s chase towards Sri Lanka – the decision made by both Latham or Temba Bavuma after the coin flip lands might be an attention-grabbing one – to chase or to not chase!

Batting and bowling first win-loss ratio in World Cup matches