South Africa vs New Zealand Prediction: Back runs in Kolkata

| Tuesday 3rd March 2026, 20:10

Tuesday 3rd March 2026, 20:10

Jamie Pacheco previews the first semi-final of the T20 World Cup with South Africa against New Zealand, starting 13:30 on Wednesday, March 4, and live on Sky Sports Main Event.

Jamie thinks both teams can score highly in this one, while he fancies one particular Proteas bowler to shine. Here are his South Africa vs New Zealand Betting Tips...

South Africa vs New Zealand Betting Tips

1 pt Both teams to score 170 runs @ 13/10
0.5 pts Corbin Bosch to be South Africa Top Bowler @ 4/1

*odds correct at time of publication

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South Africa

It’s worth remembering that SA are the only side in the tournament who remain unbeaten.

Yes, they cheated death not once but twice in that match against Afghanistan in the Group Stages but in the grand scheme of things, that was somewhat irrelevant anyway because they would still have easily gone through even if they’d lost it.

The worry for NZ here, and whoever they meet in the final, if they go through, is that it’s been very much a team effort. It hasn’t been about two or three players carrying the team, it’s been about every single player contributing to the cause at one stage or another.

Fine, if we had to pick their stand-out players, they’d be Lungi Ngidi (12 wickets) and Aiden Markram (three fifties), but like we said, no player has been a passenger.

One worry though might be that they rested Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj and Marco Jansen in that last match against Zimbabwe. Why? It’s only T20 they’re playing here so not much danger of fatigue. What was the need for that?

But they should revert to the XI that got them to this stage to begin with.

South Africa Likely XI

De Kock, Markram, Rickleton, Brevis, Miler, Stubbs, Jansen, Bosch, Maharaj, Rabada, Ngidi

New Zealand

Is it any big surprise that the Kiwis have reached yet another semi-final? Not really.

They’re a team that in football would be described as ‘hard to beat’. Everyone pulls their weight, they never give up, their fielding is brilliant, their running between the wickets among the best out there and they just play tough cricket.

Matt Henry, Glenn Phillips, Tim Seifert and Rachin Ravindra are their game-changers. Phillips provided us with a handy winner for NZ top bat last time out at 4/1.

But they also bat pretty deep and have plenty of bowling options. As an example, Ravindra, normally a part-timer, took four wickets against Sri Lanka.

But they should have beaten England, making mistakes with the ball when they were all over them. And that is a concern.

New Zealand Likely XI

Seifert, Allen, Ravindra, Phillips, Mitchell, Chapman, Santner, McConchie, Henry, Duffy/Sodhi, Ferguson.

Pitch and conditions

We’re at Eden Garden for this one.

It’s been a decent wicket to bat on this tournament. West Indies almost got to 200 on Sunday against India and that was chased. But maybe 180 will be seen as a decent first-innings total this time round.

Hard to say what the skipper will want to do here, but with the threat of dew in the second innings, chasing is the safer of the two options.

South Africa vs New Zealand odds

South Africa are 8/15 and New Zealand 6/4.

Fair prices. As we said, SA are the only side yet to lose in this tournament and have ticked just about every box; New Zealand love being underdogs and win plenty of games through real team efforts.

A concern for would-be NZ backers is SA’s excellent head-to-head record against this lot, currently 12-7 in favour of the Proteas.

Best leave it alone, especially with chasing likely to be an advantage. And of course, we don’t know who that will be.

1 pt Both teams to score 170 runs @ 13/10

Here are the first innings totals at Eden Gardens so far this World Cup:

West Indies: 195 against India

West Indies: 165 against Italy

England: 2027 against Italy

Scotland: 152 against England

West Indies: West Indies 182 against Scotland

So further proof this is a good wicket to bat on with three of those matches seeing the team batting first bust 170. This being a day-night match, it will get easier to bat on in the second innings, so that may not be enough. Batting first and getting say 190 is likely to see the team chasing at least come pretty close.

These are two decent bowling line-ups but they’re also two good batting units. All in all, both teams getting 170 at a boosted 13/10 looks the way to go.

South Africa vs New Zealand - Price Boosts

Both Teams To Score 170+ Runs

13/10

Bet Here

Odds correct at time of publishing.

0.5 pts Corbin Bosch to be South Africa Top Bowler @ 4/1

Corbin Bosch has come pretty close plenty of times in this market and despite Ngidi attracting most of the headlines for being the leading wicket-taker of the side on 12 and developing a virtually unplayable slower ball, Corbin Bosch is (alongside Jansen) is just wicket behind him on 11.

Bosch has the advantage of bowling at the death, though, and is a considerably higher price at 4/1 to the pair of them, who are both 14/5. So he gets the nod.

South Africa vs New Zealand - Top Home Team Bowler

Corbin Bosch

4/1

Bet Here

Odds correct at time of publishing.

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