With the T20 series currently level at 1-all, both South Africa and New Zealand head to the decider in Auckland knowing that they must bring out their best game to take the first series of this tour.
The biggest news for Black Caps fans is that Jesse Ryder, looking trimmer than usual and in devastating form for Wellington, will return to the side, probably at the expense of Colin de Grandhomme. This will give captain Brendon McCullum a slight headache as he tries to determine who should bat at the top of the order to fit Ryder in. Probably the top three of Guptill, Nicol and McCullum will be persisted with, so the biggest question will be whether Ryder bats above Williamson or if they use him as a floater depending on match and pitch conditions.
The Black Caps will want to see if their strategy of psychological disintegration, which has worked against the Proteas in the past, can have any effect on a team with their sights set on being No. 1 in all formats. The Aggressor-in-Chief Tim Southee, who hit Richard Levi in the head with a short ball in the first T20 and was then destroyed by him in the second, will again play a crucial role. Their major problem will be ensuring that Levi does not play a similar innings to Hamilton, where none of the Black Caps bowlers came close to troubling him for either his wicket or his scoring rate.
Although the final match of the series is approaching, the South African batting unit is still mostly untested. They did not impress in the first T20 and Levi's scintillating innings in the second left the others with little to do. AB de Villiers showed that he can turn the strike over to a big hitter when the situation demands it, but if New Zealand can get rid of Levi early then the South African strategy will have to be rethought. A big question mark remains over the No. 3 position, with Colin Ingram and Wayne Parnell both failing there so far this series.
Given that New Zealand have the benefit of home conditions on this tour, South Africa will want their bowlers to live up to their promise. Johan Botha has shown that he can tie down an end if his team needs it, but the other bowlers, especially the quicks, have not impressed. They need to find an opener who can take wickets because of the form that the New Zealand top order is in, and this means that Tsotsobe or one of the Morkel brothers will have to step up. With Dale Steyn set to return for the ODI series, the other fast bowlers will know they risk losing their place in the side if they do not bowl well.
New Zealand (Probable): 1. Rob Nicol, 2. Martin Guptill, 3. Brendon McCullum, 4. Kane Williamson, 5. Jesse Ryder, 6. James Franklin, 7. Nathan McCullum, 8. Doug Bracewell, 9. Kyle Mills, 10. Ronnie Hira, 11. Tim Southee.
South Africa (Probable): 1. Richard Levi, 2. Hashim Amla, 3. Colin Ingram, 4. AB de Villiers, 5. JP Duminy, 6. Justin Ontong, 7. Merchant de Lange, 8. Albie Morkel, 9. Johan Botha, 10. Morne Morkel, 11. Lonwabo Tsotsobe.
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