Unfancied New Zealand launched their Champions Trophy campaign with an upsetvictory over South Africa in a low-scoring Group B league encounter, riding oncaptain Stephen Fleming's stroke-filled 89 and a disciplined show by thebowlers.
After being restricted to 195 on a difficult track, the Kiwis turned thetables on South Africa by skittling them for a paltry 108 in 34.1 overs torecord a comprehensive 87-run win in the floodlit encounter at the Brabournestadium in Mumbai.
Fleming's magnificent sheet-anchoring role paved the foundation for theKiwis' fighting score of 195 on a bowler-friendly surface in the contest betweentwo former champions that ended well within the distance with both teams failingto last their quota of 50 overs.
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Kyle Mills (3-11), Jacob Oram (3-26) and Jeetan Patel (3-11) then turned thespotlight on themselves with an immaculate bowling performance to give theirteam two full points.
Only three South African batsmen, with skipper Graeme Smith leading the waywith a determined 42, reached double figures as they lost with 15.5 overs tospare. The other two batsmen were Andrew Hall (13) and Justin Kemp, who made anattacking 26 to remain unbeaten at the end.
Kiwi opening bowler Mills wrecked the South African top order in a six-overspell and Oram, who replaced him at the pavilion end, grabbed as many wickets inhis incisive spell to send the Proteas on the path of a massive defeat.
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Mills's victims were number one Boeta Dippenaar, Herschelle Gibbs both ofwhom failed to score and key batsman Jacques Kallis (8) and the carnage left theAfricans tottering at 25 for three in the ninth over.
Oram sent back captain Smith, wicket keeper Mark Boucher (8) and formercaptain Shaun Pollock (1) to leave the Africans tottering at 71 for six and thematch was as good as over.
The South Africans added 34 more runs before they were bundled out, withspinner Patel grabbing 3 for 11 in only 19 balls. Left arm slow bowler DanielVettori got the remaining wicket.
New Zealand take on Sri Lanka in their next match here on Oct 20 while SouthAfrica travel to Ahmedabad to play against the islanders on Oct 24.
For the second successive match, bowlers held sway following Sri Lanka'snine-wicket win over the West Indies in the last qualifying stage match two daysago in which the Windies were shot out for 80.
Chasing 196 for victory under lights, South Africa were kept in the fight bySmith even as the others in the top-order crumbled. He too got out to a poorshot after facing 57 balls and striking five fours.
The 25-year-old left-hander's dismissal in the 21st over was crucial, as helooked the sole batsman capable of guiding his team to the target. His departureleft his team gasping at 69 for five 127 runs adrift with 29 overs left and theynever recovered from his loss.
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Earlier, Fleming stood tall with a classical anchoring knock of 89 to guideNew Zealand to the fighting score and but for his 193-minute vigil, during whichhe faced 112 balls and struck 11 fours, his team would have been bowled out forless than 100 runs.
Fleming, who opened the innings with Lou Vincent, was the lone Kiwi batsmanto come to terms with the vagaries of the pitch which was offering unevenbounce, some turn and good seam movement, and on which the ball stopped attimes, even as his other teammates perished one after another.
The 33-year-old left hander - New Zealand's longest serving and mostsuccessful Test captain -- stroked his way judiciously, playing late and mostlysquare or behind the wicket and was ninth out in the 44th over after registeringthe highest individual score at this ground in five ODI matches.
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Pakistan opener Shoaib Mohammed's 73 against India more than a decade and ahalf ago was the previous best score.
The tall New Zealand captain showed the lessons learnt on his past tours toIndia in ample measure in his shot selection while others failed to show thesame sort of application.
Opener Vincent made an aggressive 17 with three fours with lofted shots,while New Zealand's most accomplished ODI player Nathan Astle made 14 whileadding 47 runs with Fleming and wicket keeper Brendon McCullum scored 21.
The fall of Astle, with 16 ODI tons to his credit, at 74 triggered a minicollapse with the Kiwis losing half their side before reaching the 100 mark,Hamish Marshall, Peter Fulton and Jacob Oram being the other batsmen to bedismissed cheaply.
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In general, all the New Zealand batsmen, who had not played any competitivecricket for seven months, looked rusty against the professional seam attack ofSouth Africa after they were put in to bat.
McCullum and Fleming, who looked calm and composed despite wickets falling ina heap, took the score past the 100 by adding 36 runs for the sixth wicket, thesecond best of the innings after the Fleming-Astle second wicket stand.
The Kiwi stumper fell to a brilliant return catch by rookie left arm spinnerRobin Peterson for 21 off 34 balls. Peterson's opening spell read an impressive2 for 33 in eight overs.
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New Zealand lost their remaining wickets, including that of Fleming, whileadding 50 more runs. The Kiwi skipper flicked Kallis's leg side ball straight toPollock on the fine leg fence and then the innings was terminated by a brilliantthrow from deep point straight at the striker's end stumps to run out last manJeetan Patel. The innings lasted 45.4 overs.
Pollock and Nel bowled six economical overs for a wicket apiece, Kallissecured three wickets in two spells while Peterson took two important wickets.Ntini and Hall failed to impress.
PTI
