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DHAKA: Jesse Ryder finally struck World Cup form with a fluent 83 to steer New Zealand to 221-8 in the quarter-final against favourites South Africa on Friday.
The burly left-hander, who failed to reach 50 in six previous innings in the tournament, delighted some 15,000 fans at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium with eight boundaries.
Ryder put on 114 for the third wicket with Ross Taylor after New Zealand, electing to bat in the day-night game, were reduced to 16-2 by the sixth over.
New Zealand were sitting pretty at 130-2 in the 33rd over when the Proteas bounced back with three wickets for 26 runs in six overs.
Kane Williamson hit an unbeaten 38 towards the end to ensure South Africa chased a 200-plus target for a place in the semi-finals.
Seamer Morne Morkel finished with 3-46, while fast bowler Dale Steyn and leg-spinner Imran Tahir picked up two wickets each.
“There wasn’t a lot of turn there, it was skidding on nicely,” said Taylor.
“We have got 221 on board and hopefully that’s enough. We wanted to keep wickets in hand and use our power down the bottom but obviously things did not work out as we had planned.”South Africa’s ploy to throw the new ball to a spinner worked again as left-armer Robin Peterson dismissed Brendon McCullum in his second over with a superb diving return catch.
It was Peterson’s 15th wicket in the tournament behind only Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi (21) and Indian seamer Zaheer Khan (17).
Steyn then had Martin Guptill caught at mid-off for one, but Ryder and Taylor settled in to take the attack to the rival camp.
South African captain Graeme Smith introduced off-break bowler Johan Botha in the fifth over and Tahir in the 13th, but failed to secure another quick wicket.
Ryder brought up New Zealand’s 100 in the 28th over with a superb drive through the covers off Steyn for his seventh boundary.
Taylor, who smashed an unbeaten 131 off 124 balls against Pakistan, looked set for another big knock before he holed out in the deep off Tahir in the 33rd over for 43.
South Africa choked the Black Caps with two more blows as Scott Styris was bowled by Morkel for 16 and Tahir ended Ryder’s brave knock by having him caught on the mid-wicket fence.
The winner will meet either Sri Lanka or England in the first semi-final in Colombo on March 29.
