Cricket: South Africa open NZ tour with 20-run win

The Canterbury Wizards couldn't conjure up enough magic this evening to stop South Africa opening their New Zealand tour with a 20-run win.

The tourists took on Canterbury in a Twenty20 at Hagley Oval to open their New Zealand tour, the first international cricket in Christchurch since January 29 last year.

South Africa got off to super starts in both innings but was unable to capitalise as Canterbury managed to fight back, but ultimately they did enough to open the tour on a winning note.

At 89/1 after 10 overs, South Africa was poised for a big finish but the Wizards applied the brakes and the experienced middle order failed to fire.

Then South Africa had Canterbury looking like falling short of triple figures but again the Wizards produced a stronger spell closing to within 20 runs of the target.

Some of the big names didn't fire but South Africa's strike power was outlined with two new weapons stepping up.

Canterbury put South Africa into bat and the uncapped Richard Levi got the South Africans off to a bullocking start, smashing 63 off 32.

Levi plundered Canterbury, hitting 10 fours and three sixes while the classy Hashim Amla dabbled his way to 35.

Peter Ingram and captain Ab de Villiers holed out but JP Duminy showed glimpses of his batting prowess with his 24.

Canterbury's fightback had South Africa finish 150/6 in an innings that had promised 200-plus at the midway stage.

Set 151 for the win, the Wizards met the vaunted South African pace attack but the unheralded Lonwabo Tsotsobe announced himself with a hat-trick.

Two wickets to the end the second over had the Wizards in early trouble at 6/2 and Tsotsobe trapped Shannon Stewart lbw with the first ball of the third.

Albie and Morne Morkel's express pace had Canterbury stymied and at the midway point South Africa had imposed themselves with Canterbury in arrears at 40/6.

But the Canterbury tail put up a rearguard and the South Africans started to look stunned as they threatened to do the unthinkable.

In the end South Africa had the ability to finish off the tail, albeit later than they would have liked.

Nonetheless, a winning start to the tour for the Proteas, that even against an under strength Canterbury showed they will be a much bigger task than their African neighbours Zimbabwe.

However, they fell short of what they should have scored, bowled well enough to get the side home but there were some Zimbabwe-esque moments in the field.

South Africa's first T20 international against the Black Caps is on Friday at Westpac Stadium in Wellington.

Scoreboard

South Africa innings

R Levi b Worker 63

H Amla b Johnston 35

C Ingram c McEwan b Worker 2

A de Villiers c Henry b Worker 4

J Duminy c Latham b McEwan 24

J Ontong c McEwan b Henry 8

J Morkel not out 10

J Botha not out 3

Extras (lb 0, wd 1, nb 0) 1

Total (for 6 wickets, 20.0 overs) 150

Fall: 1-81 (Levi), 2-89 (Ingram), 3-98 (de Villiers), 4-107 (Amla), 5-120 (Ontong), 6-145 (Duminy)

Bowing: M Henry 4-0-27-1, R McCone 2-0-20-0, L van Beek 1-0-21-0, M McEwan 4-0-30-1, G Worker 4-0-23-3 (1w), T Johnston 4-0-24-1, H Nicholls 1-0-5-0

Canterbury innings

G Worker c Morkel b Tsotsobe 4

P Fulton b Tsotsobe 0

S Stewart lbw Tsotsobe 2

T Latham c de Villiers b Tsotsobe 11

R Young c Ingram b Theron 5

H Nicholls c Levi b Duminy 18

L van Beek c Theron b Botha 1

M McEwan c Tsotsobe b Theron 30

M Henry c de Villiers b Morkel 42

T Johnston run out (M Morkel) 0

R McCone not out 3

Extras (b 4, lb 5, wd 5, nb 0) 14

Total (for 10 wickets, 19.0 overs) 130

Fall: 1-6 (Worker), 2-6 (Fulton), 3-9 (Stewart), 4-24 (Latham), 5-28 (Young), 6-39 (van Beek), 7-63 (Nicholls), 8-122 (Henry), 9-122 (Johnston), 10-130 (McEwan)

Bowing: J Morkel 2-0-7-0, L Tsotsobe 4-0-18-4 (1w), M Morkel 4-0-21-1 (2w), J Botha 4-0-34-1 (1w), J Theron 4-0-34-2 (1w), JP Duminy 1-0-7-1

Result: South Africa won by 20 runs.