Esterhuizen blasts South Africa to a 33-run win in the 5th T20 against NZ

Connor Esterhuizen blasted a careerbest 75 from 33 balls to propel South Africa to a 33run win over New Zealand in the fifth Twenty20 on Wednesday and a 32 win in the fivematch seriesEsterhizens second consecutive half century after his previous best of 57 in the fourth match on Sunday saw South Africa make 1874 after being sent inNew Zealand managed only 1548 in replyEsterhuizen paced the second half of the South Africa innings after coming to the crease in the 11th over with total 762 He was dropped a place in the order Wednesday and batted behind Rubin Hermann who hit 39 from 31 balls to pick up the runrate after a slow startSouth Africa was only 431 after the power play and 76 at the midpoint of its innings The last 10 overs produced 111 runs thanks to Esterhuizen and Dian Forrester with whom he added 61 in just over four overs for the fourth wicketI think the nice thing was that I got to come in and play with some freedom because of the nice platform from the guys up top with wickets in hand Esterhuizen said Early on the openers assessed it and said 160 was competitive The more myself and Forrester was out there we said 170 was a good score and we got 187Esterhuizens innings included five fours and six sixes He was dropped on 49 by Bevon Jacobs from the bowling of Zak Foulkes and made New Zealand pay stretching his innings into the last over In total the South Africa innings contained 15 fours and 10 sixes along with 47 dot ballsWith wickets in hand South Africa added 52 runs from the last five overs including five sixes New Zealands problems were compounded by poor catching though Nick Kelly held a brilliant onehanded catch the best of the series to dismiss HermannThe New Zealand run chase was also poorly executed and the home side found itself bogged down by accurate bowling well supported by the fieldGerald Coetzee bowled quick at both ends of the innings and took 221 from four overs while Ottneil Baartman used variation and took 233 The spinner Prenelan Subrayen allowed only 22 runs from his four overs and captain Keshav Maharaj also tested the New Zealand battersNew Zealand was 462 after the power play and 653 after 10 overs when the run rate required was 123 per over After 15 overs New Zealand was 1164 and the required run rate had crept up to 144 New Zealand finally needed 47 from the last two oversJacobs was the best of the New Zealand batters scoring 36 from 19 The match was the most highscoring of the series New Zealand was bowled out for 91 in the first match which South Africa won by seven wickets South Africa was bowled out for 107 in the second match which New Zealand won by 68 runs and held to 1369 in the third match which New Zealand won by eight wickets South Africa restricted New Zealand to 145 in the fourth match which it won by 19 runsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever