{"id":9691,"date":"2025-03-03T14:11:07","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T09:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/?p=9691"},"modified":"2025-03-03T14:11:09","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T09:11:09","slug":"new-zealand-in-confident-mood-for-semi-against-strong-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/sports\/new-zealand-in-confident-mood-for-semi-against-strong-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand in confident mood for semi against \u2018strong\u2019 South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New Zealand go into their Champions Trophy semi-final against South Africa in Lahore on Wednesday buoyed by beating the Proteas at the same venue in a tri-series last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Black Caps&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1895307\">lost to India<\/a>&nbsp;in their final Group A match on Sunday in Dubai but Tom Latham said it would have no bearing on the encounter for a place in the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More relevant is that New Zealand&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1891183\/ton-up-williamson-steers-nz-to-tri-series-final\">chased down<\/a>&nbsp;305 against South Africa in Lahore after Kane Williamson scored 133 and also&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1891921\">beat<\/a>&nbsp;hosts Pakistan in the tri-series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re fortunate that we had a tri-series in Pakistan and against South Africa,\u201d said the wicketkeeper Latham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve got a chance to look back on those experiences and give our best in a semi-final, which is pretty cool,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>New Zealand were already into the last four of the Champions Trophy prior to Sunday\u2019s loss to India in Dubai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They also already knew they would have to head back to Pakistan for their semi-final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt is something that\u2019s out of our control,\u201d Latham said of the travelling, with India playing all their games in Dubai after&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1894430\/india-slammed-for-one-venue-farce-in-champions-trophy\">refusing<\/a>&nbsp;to go to hosts Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t decide the schedule and for us it\u2019s about turning up at each game regardless of where it is and trying to play our best brand of cricket as best we can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cObviously it\u2019s a chance at making an ICC final,\u201d said Latham. \u201cWe know there\u2019s a lot of hard work to do to get to that point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>South Africa topped Group B ahead of Australia with two impressive wins and one washed-out match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe know how strong South Africa are,\u201d said Latham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019ve got all bases covered in terms of batting, bowling and in the field. As you look at it, I\u2019m sure it\u2019ll be a fantastic game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>New Zealand\u2019s fielding has been outstanding on their way to the semi-finals \u2013 Glenn Phillips took a spectacular one-handed flying catch at backward point to dismiss Virat Kohli on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI think we\u2019ve seen throughout the tournament some of the catches that the guys have been taking,\u201d said Latham. \u201cFor us it\u2019s an attitude thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>India face Australia in the first semi-final, in Dubai on Tuesday.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Zealand go into their Champions Trophy semi-final against South Africa in Lahore on Wednesday buoyed by beating the Proteas at the same venue in a tri-series last month. The Black Caps&nbsp;lost to India&nbsp;in their final Group A match on Sunday in Dubai but Tom Latham said it would have no bearing on the encounter [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":9692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9691"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}