A clinical performance with both bat and ball saw New Zealand beat South Africa in the second semifinal in Lahore to reach the Champions Trophy 2025 final. Centuries from Rachin Ravindra and Kane Williamson saw New Zealand post an imposing 362 on the board. Their spinners then delivered in unison to seal the deal in New Zealand’s favour but the margin of victory was significantly brought down to just 50 runs right at the end after David Miller went berserk for an unbeaten 67-ball ton – the fastest in Champions Trophy history.

South Africa were under the pump in the chase right from the outset. Matt Henry posed some questions and Kyle Jamieson began by bowling a maiden. The jittery start resulted in Ryan Rickelton falling early as he mistimed an off cutter from Henry to hit it straight to cover. Rassie van der Dussen started off with a boundary first ball and Temba Bavuma, who was batting on 3 off 18 at one stage, finally broke the shackles with a lovely on drive that reached the boundary.

Despite scoring only 36 from the first eight overs, South Africa redeemed themselves in that first PowerPlay with both Bavuma and van der Dussen collecting a few boundaries. While William O’Rourke was targetted, the South Africans just couldn’t put the spinners away. First, it was Michael Bracewell who kept bowling one tidy over after another. And when he was joined by Mitchell Santner, things got even harder for the batting side.

Despite the good start by the spin duo, South Africa were still in the game when both the set batters brought up their respective half-centuries. But the chase fizzled out when Santner removed both the batters in a matter of a few overs. Slowing down the pace considerably, Santner managed to eke out some turn from this surface to account for Bavuma’s dismissal before managing to breach van der Dussen’s defence.

At that point, South Africa literally needed something special from Heinrich Klaasen to pull off a spectacular win. However, the New Zealand skipper stood tall for his side yet again and came out on top of a much anticipated one-on-one clash against the maverick South African keeper-batter, who mistimed one straight to long on. From thereon, it was one-way traffic as Bracewell then rounded off his spell with a wicket before the likes of Ravindra and Glenn Phillips joined the party as well by combining for three more dismissals.

Any amount of substantial interest still left in the contest, which was dead and buried by then, was down to Miller potentially lighting up the skies with a few big ones. With just the tail to bat with, Miller stunned the opposition and the small crowd that was still present out there despite knowing the outcome. Batting on 47 off 43 by the end of the 46th over, Miller farmed the strike for the major part of the next 24 deliveries and took on Jamieson and O’Rourke for a flurry of boundaries. Needing 18 from the final six deliveries for a spectacular century, the South African finisher got the job done when he needed 2 from the final ball. His heroics significantly reduced the loss margin which at one stage looked like it would be beyond 100.

Earlier in the day, an efficient batting performance from New Zealand saw them put up a massive total. Ravindra looked in great touch right from the start and even though South Africa, for a brief period, pulled back the run rate after getting rid of Will Young, New Zealand regained control once Williamson got going.

Ravindra in particular was in a murderous mood as he kept finding the boundary with Williamson playing second fiddle. Keshav Maharaj, who put the lid on the scoring rate for a while, was taken apart by the duo eventually as they hit him for a six each. In the process, both batters brought up landmarks as Williamson got to his fifty off 61 deliveries whereas Ravindra reached three figures for the fifth time in his ODI career with all five of those tons coming in ICC tournaments.

Williamson then took charge after Rabada’s departure with Daryl Mitchell biding his time at the other end. The former skipper repeatedly brought out the scoop and fetched success as he took only 31 balls for his second fifty. However, it was that same shot that proved to be his undoing as New Zealand now went into the death overs without both the set batters. At one point, it did seem like South Africa would capitalise on it before Mitchell and then later on Phillips went berserk to hammer 83 runs from the final six overs which meant New Zealand already had one foot in the final.

Brief scores:
New Zealand 362/6 in 50 overs (Rachin Ravindra 108, Kane Williamson 102, Glenn Phillips 49*, Will Young 21, Daryl Mitchell 49; Lungi Ngidi 3/72, Kagiso Rabad 2-70) beat South Africa 312/9 in 50 overs (David Miller 100*, Rassie van der Dussen 69, Temba Bavuma 56, Aiden Markram 31; Matt Henry 2-43,  Mitchell Santner 3/43, Glenn Phillips 2-27) by 50 runs