New Zealand’s five-game winning streak in ODI cricket was ended by India on Sunday in Dubai, but there is no time to ponder on what went wrong in that loss, as they have to prepare for an ICC Champions Trophy semi-final hardly three days later, that too in a different country. 

In another quirky trait of this lopsided Champions Trophy, the two semi-finalist teams from Group B (based in Pakistan) decided to travel to Dubai before the last group stage match between the already-qualified India and New Zealand, in anticipation that they could acclimatize to conditions in the UAE should their knockout match be held there.

New Zealand, who landed in Dubai from Pakistan the day after their five-wicket win over Bangladesh put them in the final four, lost their first match of the tournament to India on Sunday and then flew back to Pakistan for the second-final on Monday, which will be against South Africa in Lahore on Wednesday. That makes it the fourth city that Mitchell Santner’s team has visited during the Champions Trophy. 

The Black Caps have, of course, gone through their time in Pakistan without a loss – three wins to claim the tri-series trophy, followed by 2-0 in the Pakistan leg of their Champions Trophy campaign – and will now back themselves to put one past South Africa and make it to the final slated for March 9. 

South Africa topped Group B after smashing an abject England by seven wickets in Karachi, and then joined Australia in flying to Dubai for hardly 36 hours, before finding out they needed to return to Pakistan to face the Black Caps. 

They also have not been beaten in the tournament, after defeating Bangladesh and England by big margins and taking a point off the washout with Australia. This is a unit yet to hit top gear but are bristling with quality in the pace departments and in the batting, with Heinrich Klaasen returning to the lineup and promptly scoring his fifth ODI fifty in a row. And in Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi, the Proteas have two tough spinners who could, like India showed in Dubai, put the skids on the Kiwi batting. 

These two teams have history at ICC ODI events. At the 2006 Champions Trophy, the Black Caps beat South Africa in a group stage match at Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium. From 2003 to 2019, no South African side beat a New Zealand side at a World Cup, and this run of domination included severe pain for South African fans. 

At the 2011 ODI World Cup, New Zealand eliminated South Africa at the quarter-final stage. Four years later, Brendon McCullum’s home team knocked out the Proteas in a nail-biting semi-final at Eden Park, and then in 2015 it was the turn of Kane Williamson’s New Zealand side to drive a dagger into South African hearts when they virtually shoved them out of the World Cup with victory in Birmingham. 

Finally, in 2023, South Africa smashed the Black Caps by 190 runs in Pune on the way to the semi-finals of the World Cup. 

New Zealand probable 11: 1 Rachin Ravindra, 2 Will Young, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Daryl Mitchell, 5 Tom Latham (wk), 6 Glenn Phillips, 7 Michael Bracewell, 8 Mitchell Santner (capt), 9 Matt Henry, 10 Kyle Jamieson, 11 Will O’Rourke 

South Africa likely 11: Ryan Rickleton, 2 Temba Bavuma (capt), 3 Rassie van der Dussen, 4 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 5 Aiden Markram, 6 David Miller, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Wiaan Mulder, 9 Keshav Maharaj, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Lungi Ngidi