Martin Guptill
vs

Morne Morkel

Martin Guptill, the right-handed opening Kiwi batsman, has peaked at the right time, with the tournament reaching the business end. Guptill has a century and a double century to his name in the matches preceding the semi-final. Morne Morkel on the other hand is well equipped to extract bounce with his height and has outshone main striker of the team Dale Steyn so far. How well Guptill counters him with his cut and pulls will define New Zealand’s push for runs in the opening powerplay.

Brendon McCullum
vs

Dale
Steyn

New Zealand’s skipper Brendon McCullum has been the driving force behind New Zealand’s resurgence at the World Cup. He has instilled the sense of fearlessness among his team mates. And the elegant right-hander is expected to bat with the same philosophy on Tuesday. To foil his attack, De Villiers’ go-to man will be undoubtedly Dale Steyn. He is the perfect answer to McCullum’s flare and fire. Steyn can vary his length and can bowl yorkers at will to contain the opener early on.

Daniel Vettori
vs

AB De Villiers

The world’s number one ODI batsman, AB de Villiers is just about the biggest scalp in cricket right now. He has all the shots in his armoury. He can play a reverse-sweep over the head of third-man and can scoop it over the fine-leg. One man tasked with the job of containing – and possibly removing – de Villiers is veteran Daniel Vettori. The Black Caps could not ask for a better person, with Vettori a master of keeping his bowling tight and forcing batsmen into unwise shots.

Trent
Boult
vs

Hashim Amla

Trent Boult has been the find of the tournament. He uses his angles well and has the ability to sharply move the ball into the right-handers. On the other hand, Hashim Amla has an excellent technique to thwart his in-swingers and the odd one leaving the blade. He can use the depth of the crease to carve away those deliveries towards deep mid-wicket and build a solid innings moving into the middle overs. Earlier in the tournament, he became the fastest batsman to 20 ODI centuries.

Ross
Taylor
vs

Imran
Tahir

When the teams met in the 2011 Ross Taylor was the second-highest scoring Black Cap with 43 runs. The man who denied him a half-century was none other than Imran Tahir and it is more than likely the two will do battle again through the middle overs of New Zealand’s innings. Tahir has been in excellent form for the Proteas, their leading wicket-taker with 15 wickets at an average of 18.86 and economy rate of 4.20 and the Proteas will be relying upon Tahir to penetrate New Zealand’s batting line-up.