Kiwis go down again

At Port Elizabeth, South Africa registered their third straight win over New Zealand, by 4 wickets, to wrap up the 5 match ODI series in the best possible way. Smith opted to field first and again Ntini gave him the vital breakthroughs in the form of Astle and Vincent and soon the out-of-form Marshall was removed by Nel. Fleming and Styris took the score to some respectability before the skipper was run-out. Styris went on to make 78 runs, with some support from the lowe middle order and some brisk hitting by Adams. The Kiwis ended up with 243 from their quota of 50 overs, which looked good enough to break the South African winning streak. For the host, the skipper and de Villiers started in a brisk fashion, though they fell in quick succession. Gibbs held one end and scored a very good 81 off 94 balls with each and every batsman chipping in with some useful runs and thus spoiling the Kiwi party. Styris shone with the ball too, though he could not get wickets. But the South Africans were unusually very severe on Bond who was taken apart for 73 runs off just 9.2 overs. Smith showed extreme 'humility' by saying that his team can improve further, while Fleming was looking to restore some pride.