AB guides hosts to easy victory over New Zealand

AB de Villiers and Wayne Parnell starred as South Africa marched to a five-wicket win over New Zealand to stay in contention for the Champions Trophy semi-finals.

Parnell took 5/57 as New Zealand collapsed from 164/4 to be all out for 214 in the 48th over at SuperSport Park,before de Villiers hit nine boundaries in 76 balls as South Africa reached 217-5 in 41.1 overs.

It was a big day for the boys, South Africa captain Graeme Smith said. In our first game against Sri Lanka,I thought our bowlers were a little tentative in the first 15 overs. But they came back strong on the same ground,hitting their areas hard.

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South Africa lost Smith for seven with the total on 22,before Jacques Kallis (36) and Hashim Amla (38) put on a 50-run stand off 57 balls. Kallis was caught by wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum off Bond,while Amla,JP Duminy and Mark Boucher followed soon after,leaving the Proteas at 180/5. But de Villiers and Albie Morkel (19 not out) hit 37 runs in just over five overs to guide the hosts to victory. Our batters put us in a good position to launch in the final 10 overs for a score of around 250,but we never got that part of our game right, Vettori said.

Ross Taylor had top-scored for New Zealand with 72,with McCullum (44) and Grant Elliott (39) making the only other contributions of note. Parnell won the Man of the Match award for his first five-wicket haul in ODIs. I was a little underdone in going for 79 in the game against Sri Lanka,but picking up five here today was a good way to bounce back, he said.