South Africa vs New Zealand: World Cup records

• The two teams have played 5 matches against each other in ICC Cricket World Cups.  South Africa has won two while New Zealand has managed to win 3 matches.
• The two teams first met in 1992 ICC Cricket World Cup Group match in which South African team were restricted to 190 runs in 50 overs.  New Zealand easily won that match by 7 wickets.
• In world cup matches of 1996 and 1999, South Africa won matches against New Zealand cricket team convincingly due to their superior bowling and batting. But since 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup, Kiwis have been on the upper hand.
• Herschelle Gibbs of South Africa and Stephen Fleming of New Zealand scored centuries in the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup Super-Eight match, the match was eventually won by New Zealand.
• There haven’t been any notable bowling performances by both sides. This is more evident from the fact that neither of the two teams have been bowled out by each other in world cup matches.
• AB de Villiers, Brendon McCullum, Daniel Vettori, Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, Jacob Oram, James Franklin, Robin Peterson and Scott Styris are the veteran players from 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup.

Famous cricket players of New Zealand: Stephen Fleming

Though, often regarded as an underperforming batsman, Stephen Fleming of New Zealand cricket team is most definitely the best captain who has ever led the New Zealand cricket team. He debuted against the Indians in 1994 and played his last ODI against the Sri Lankans in 2007. During this 13 year career, the left hander played a total of 280 ODIs and scored 8037 runs at a respectable average of 32.40.

Born in Christchurch in 1973, Stephen Fleming is to date the longest serving captain in the ODIs for New Zealand cricket team and scored a total of 8 centuries and 49 fifties. He was always a subject of scrutiny for his poor conversion rate but every now and then played an inning which would lead his team out of trouble and help them secure a memorable win.  One such inning comes to the mind when he scored a blistering 134 of just 132 deliveries against the South Africans in the 2003 ICC Cricket world cup which helped his side not only progressed forward but against the expectations of every one, crashed the mighty South Africa out of the tournament.

During the 3 world cups that he represented the Kiwis, he had a decent record but never played to his full potential apart from a few occasions. He resigned from the ODI captaincy following the defeat at the hands of the Sri Lankans in the 2007 Cricket World Cup and subsequently from all forms of international cricket in 2008.

Stephen Fleming now spends majority of his time with his family with infrequent commentary on tours to New Zealand. He would without a shout of a doubt be regarded as a good ODI player and a leader who led a relatively weak side and achieved out of them what very few people could.

Hottest players of World Cup Cricket 2011 or there aint any?

Those were good old days when World Cup Cricket tournaments used to be so full of glamour. There were many players who were known for their masculine style and impressive personalities. Is it that the viewers and sports fan have changed their taste? Or is it a fact that we actually do not have hottest players in Cricket World Cup 2011 who have fan following not only because of how good they are in the sport they play, but also because of their looks? Yes women! the heartbeat of yours, Bret Lee surely is in our list.

However looking back in cricket history, one can pick some of the Cricket players who were real style icons. No wonder many of them got a lot of offers to work in Movies! Taking it up from the 1975 world cup, even if the killer looks were missing, we had players like Vivian Richards whose sexy reverse sweep no one can forget. In the years to come, Imran Khan was considered to be the king as far as glamour in Cricket was concerned. In 1979 World Cup Cricket, Pakistani team had stylish and hottest cricket players like Majid Khan, Mohsin Hassan Khan, Wasim Hassan Raja and there were stylish batsmen like Sunil Gawaskar who had an added attraction.

By the time the third world cup was played, World cup Cricket 1983, Imran Khan became the heart throb of millions and millions of cricket fans from all across the globe. He was known as an icon of masculinity and style in his youth. In 1983, it was not only Imran Khan, but players like Ravi Shastri, Holding, Allen Border, Ramiz Raja, David Gower and Richard Headley were considered hot players in cricket. 1987 world cup cricket presented Steve Waugh to the world. Steve Waugh along with Wasim Akram, Courtney Walsh and Martin Crowe became the heart throbs. Imran Khan was still considered to be the hottest player though. 1992 cricket world cup was unique in the sense that it was the first world cup which was played in colored kit.

A lot of cricketers looked hot in the true sense as the colored atmosphere added to glamour. Saeed anwar, Ramiz Raja, Martin Crowe, Steve Waugh, Kepler Wessels, Ian Botham, Anil Kumble, Aaqib Javed, Allen Donald, Andy Flower, and Wasim Akram were considered to be the hottest players in Cricket. 1992 cricket world cup was unique and important in the sense that a lot of stylish and hot all rounders in cricket resigned from cricket right after this world cup. The great names include Martin Crowe, Kepler Wessels, Imran Khan, Ravi Shastri, Allen Border, Vivian Richards, Graham Gooch and Houston. In 1996 world cup cricket, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis were the absolute hot players in the world of cricket. Sachin Tendulkar, Steve Waugh, Hansie Cronje, Alec Stewart, Gary Kirsten, and Bevan were considered to be real hot cricket players. In 1999 Glenn McGrath and Michael Bevan were the star hottest players of the cricket world cup. In 2003 Wasim Akram, Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting, Shoaib Akhtar, Bret Lee, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, Stephen Fleming, Shaun Pollock and Brian Lara were considered to be the hot players of cricket.

World cup cricket 2007 saw Ricky Ponting at his best. Graeme Smith, Irfan Pathan and few other names were also considered as hottest players of cricket. With such big names in the history of cricket who were considered as hottest players in the history of cricket, the cricket squads who are going to compete for the world cup cricket 2011 seem to lack that quality. Shahid Afridi and Misbah ul Haq are the hottest cricket players from Pakistan.

M.S. Dhoni is considered to be hot. We can add a couple of other names to this list too, but though this world cup has bowling and batting stars, the so loved glamour aspect is missing from the game this time around. Lets see who can get the attention of cricket fans by playing brilliantly!

Top three 20-20 Captains of New Zealand

20-20 or T-20 cricket is relatively new. It was a long while to get approval from all of the teams. Even though the ICC has approved of it, accepted it as an international form of cricket, and even went on to hold a World Cup for this format of cricket, some nations have yet not approved of it. New Zealand had 3 captains leading the side to this yet-controversial form of cricket.

Stephen Fleming was the first player to captain the New Zealand national side in a 20-20 match. He led the side in 5 matches, won 2 of them, lost 2 and one match was tied. This format was a new one and Fleming was still to mature as a 20-20 captain. However, he retired, and the captaincy was handed over to Daniel Vettori.

Here is the list of top captains of New Zealand in T20:

• Daniel Vettori
• Stephen Fleming
• Brendon McCullum

Top 10 ODI captains of New Zealand

New Zealand has always been a danger for every side when playing ODI cricket. They started playing in 1972 and were lead by Bevan Congdon. During his 3 years as a captain of the New Zealand national side, he only managed one victory in seven matches that he played as a captain.

New Zealand has only seen 18 one-day international captains so far. Stephen Fleming captained the side for the longest period and played 218 matches as captain. He was flawless as a captain and led the team to many victories despite having a lack of talent inside the team. He managed to win 98 matches during his reign of 10 years. He will definitely go down as one of the greatest captains in the history of international cricket.

The top ten list would also include the resilient Daniel Vettori, Lee Germon, Martin Crowe, who led the team to 1992 World Cup semi-finals, and the reliable John Wright. A complete top ten captains of New Zealand list is below:

• Stephen Fleming
• Daniel Vettori
• Martin Crowe
• Lee Germon
• John Wright
• Ken Rutherford
• Dion Nash
• Jeff Crowe
• Jeff Crowe
• Jeremy Coney

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