South Africa wins tour opener in New Zealand
Left-arm fast bowler Lonwabo Tsotsobe took a hat trick as South Africa beat Canterbury Province by 20 runs in Wednesday's Twenty20 match on its New Zealand tour.
Tsotsobe had opener George Worker caught by Morne Morkel for four with the fifth ball of his first over, bowled former New Zealand test batsman Peter Fulton for a duck next ball then trapped one-day international Shanan Stewart lbw with the first ball of his second over.
That reduced Canterbury to 9-3 in the fourth over as it replied to South Africa's 20-over total of 150-6 and he went on to claim the wicket of current New Zealand batsman Tom Latham to finish with 4-9 from three overs.
Canterbury was all out for 130 to the final ball of the 19th over.
South Africa will take positives and negatives from Wednesday's match which is its only warm-up ahead the first of three Twenty20 internationals against New Zealand in Wellington on Friday.
It made a strong start to its innings as openers Hashim Amla and Richard Levi put on 81 in only 8.2 overs. Levi made 63 from 32 balls with 10 fours and three sixes in a spectacular innings and Amla made 35 from 33 balls as the perfect foil.
But the South African innings dwindled from that point and the next-best effort was J.P. Duminy's 24.
Tsotsobe's outstanding bowling effort wrecked the top of the Canterbury order and left the home team with little hope of victory at 39-6 after nine overs. Matt McEwan and Michael Henry then combined to lift Canterbury to 122-8 with two overs remaining, raising hopes of victory.
However Morne Morke and Rusty Theron claimed the final two wickets to clinch a win for the tourists.
The match was played in Christchurch only a week ahead of the first anniversary of the Feb. 23, 2011 earthquake that killed 185 people in the South Island city.
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