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South Africa 128 for 7 (Smith 33, Butler 2-13) beat New Zealand 127 for 5 (McCullum 57, van der Merwe 2-14) by one run
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

	Roelof van der Merwe suffocated New Zealand's run-chase with 2 for 14 in four overs © Associated Press
Related Links News: Blow by blow News: South Africa send the right message Bulletin: New Zealand blast their way past Scotland Player/Officials: Ian Butler | Brendon McCullum | Nathan McCullum | Scott Styris | Roelof van der Merwe Matches: New Zealand v South Africa at Lord's Series/Tournaments: ICC World Twenty20 Teams: New Zealand | South Africa

South Africa's bowlers, led by the unhittable spin of Roelof van der Merwe, pulled an improbable victory out of the jaws of defeat as they successfully defended a meagre target of 129 and snuck home by a solitary run to secure the Group D bragging rights in a scrappy but compelling dead-rubber tussle at Lord's.

At the halfway mark of the match, it seemed there could be only one winner, after South Africa had squandered a platform of 47 for 0 after their Powerplay overs to dribble to a disappointing 20-over total of 128 for 7. But New Zealand's response never emerged from second gear. A 54-ball 57 from Brendon McCullum set the platform, but his team-mates failed to dive in, and bizarrely they ran out of steam with six wickets still standing.

The bulk of the credit belonged to van der Merwe, who put a momentum-squandering six-ball duck behind him to concede a mere 14 runs from his four overs, as well as capturing both of New Zealand's dangermen. McCullum was stumped by a distance as he gave the charge and missed, while Ross Taylor swished flat-footedly and was bowled for 22 from 31 balls, a peculiarly ponderous innings that was compounded by a tweaked hamstring that hampered his mobility in the second half of his knock.

McCullum had begun his innings with typical belligerence, cracking three fours from his first seven deliveries as New Zealand put 19 on the ball in just two overs. But at the other end, his support was in short supply. Martin Guptill miscued Dale Steyn to mid-on for 5 before Neil Broom was caught and bowled by a lunging Jacques Kallis for 1, and at the end of the Powerplays, New Zealand had slipped to a sluggish 35 for 2.

With the pitch slowing up, the run-rate went with it, and South Africa's spinners took full advantage. Taylor and McCullum added 56 for the third wicket in 11 overs, as van der Merwe and Johan Botha took the pace off the ball to tormenting effect, and by the time Jacob Oram arrived to reinject some urgency, the requirement was hovering around two runs a ball.

The final scoreline was misleadingly tight. New Zealand failed to hit a single six in their innings, and they would not have come close had it not been for a freakish yorker from Steyn that bounced out of a foothole and over the keeper's head for four byes in the penultimate over. With eight needed from two balls, Oram inside-edged through fine leg to keep the contest alive, but couldn't clear the field with his final baseball-style swing.

It was a disappointing denouement for New Zealand, as South Africa successfully defended the lowest winning total ever made in T20Is, but it was vital match practice nonetheless. Deprived of the services of their captain, Daniel Vettori, who has been struggling with a shoulder problem, New Zealand turned instead to the lanky seam of Ian Butler, and the spin and swing of Nathan McCullum and Scott Styris, who sent down a combined analysis that would have graced a 50-over game: 4 for 41 from ten overs.

Fresh from their 130-run dispatching of Scotland in their opening fixture at The Oval, South Africa seemed to have continued in the same vein when Graeme Smith and Kallis cruised to 47 for 0 in the six Powerplay overs. But as soon as Nathan McCullum was thrown the ball by his brother and captain, Brendon, New Zealand applied a tourniquet that the clinical South Africans were unable to remove.

McCullum's first over went for just two runs, and from the start of the very next over, the rot set in. Smith called Kallis through for a quick single as his brother hurtled round to short midwicket to field. The shy beat Kallis's lunch by a fraction of an inch, whereupon Butler denied the incoming Herschelle Gibbs any early momentum by completing an over in which only one run was possible.

Gibbs, in a hurry to impose himself, then mistimed a drive at Styris to be caught-and-bowled for 3 from 7, before Butler chimed in with the biggest wicket of the lot as Smith played all around a full-length delivery and was comprehensively bowled for 33 from 35. At 63 for 3 in the 12th over, their early momentum had well and truly evaporated.

Had the result not been immaterial, there's no way that AB de Villiers, the star against Scotland, would have been held back this long. But the shuffling of the batting card did South Africa no favours. van der Merwe creaked to a six-ball duck before McCullum yorked him with a quicker ball, and when de Villiers finally appeared to belt his second ball through midwicket for four, it was only South Africa's second boundary in seven overs.

It didn't, however, signal an upturn in their fortunes. A second boundary, this time through the covers, demonstrated that de Villiers' eye was most certainly in, but so was Guptill's in the outfield, as he pulled off a direct hit from mid-off to run the dangerman out for 15 from eight balls.

Mark Boucher failed for the second innings running when he mistimed a full-toss to give Butler a deserved second, and not even JP Duminy could inject any urgency. He did his best with a brace of sixes, but then holed out moments after the second of them, caught by Broom at mid-on. Albie Morkel, a serious striker when the mood takes him, was unable to keep the strike in the dying moments of the innings, as New Zealand completed a fine effort in the field. It was not, however, good enough.

Pakistan 175 for 5 (Akmal 41, Younis 36) beat Netherlands 93 (Afridi 4-11) by 82 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

	The Dutch were completely bamboozled by Shahid Afridi's top-spinning legbreaks © Getty Images
Related Links Matches: Netherlands v Pakistan at Lord's Series/Tournaments: ICC World Twenty20 Teams: Netherlands | Pakistan

Shahid Afridi carried Pakistan into the Super Eights at the expense of a spirited but outclassed Dutch side at Lord's, as he ripped his top-spinning legbreaks through a succession of bamboozled defences to deliver his team a thumping 82-run victory with the superb figures of 4 for 11 from four overs. For the Netherlands, the end came with unseemly haste as they lost their last nine wickets for 52 in 10.2 overs, but they still left the tournament with their heads held high after last week's unforgettable floodlit triumph over England.

Today, however, the greater class and knowhow of the Pakistanis came to the fore. They produced a chastened display after their error-strewn effort against England at The Oval on Sunday, and though their batting was kept on a tight leash by some determined Dutch bowling, the prospect of defeat was never seriously entertained. Netherlands were set 176 for victory, but thanks to their superior net run-rate going into this game, they could still have gone through with a score of 151 or more. In the end, the calculations were academic.

Netherlands were given a typically brief but belligerent start from their pinch-hitter, Darron Reekers, who smashed three fours from his first five balls including two stand-and-deliver slaps over long-on from Mohammad Aamer, but that, realistically, was as good as their run-chase got. From his very next delivery, Reekers miscued another wild wallop, and Sohail Tanvir claimed a well-judged catch at deep midwicket.

It wasn't a faultless display by any stretch of the imagination, and Pakistan's fallible catching again resurfaced when Alexei Kervezee was gifted two lives in consecutive overs. But Afridi struck with his first delivery of the match when he slid a topspinner through Bas Zuiderent's defences, and Peter Borren followed one over later when he top-edged a sweep off Saeed Ajmal. Kervezee's chancy innings came to an end in the same over as he galloped down the wicket to slap what would have been their first boundary in front of square for seven overs, but was defeated by the doosra and stumped by a mile.

At 49 for 4 in the ninth over, the Dutch resistance had been all but crushed, and Afridi stepped forward to grind them down even further. Though he fumbled a run-out opportunity to let Tom de Grooth get off the mark first-ball, Afridi struck with the first ball of his third over, a full flat topspinner that flattened the leg stump. Two balls later, Daan van Bunge yorked himself as he charged down the track and was easily stumped for a duck, and though Ryan ten Doeschate stemmed the procession with a six over midwicket off Shoaib Malik, his same-over dismissal - again to a yorker-length stumping - reduced the score to a sorry 71 for 7.

Afridi had time to claim one more wicket in his superlative four-over spell, as Edgar Schiferli flogged a lofted drive to deep mid-off, before Kamran Akmal completed his fourth stumping of the match - again off Ajmal - as Dirk Nannes was dragged out of his ground. It was left to Umar Gul to seal the contest with 14 balls to spare, when he splattered Pieter Seelaar's stumps with another full-length delivery. Pakistan's captain, Younis Khan, may have derided Twenty20 matches as "fun" after their defeat against England, but this was a very serious performance indeed.

The tone of the Pakistan performance was set during their six Powerplay overs, in which they raced to 50 for 1. Salman Butt, singled out by his captain after the England match for the woeful state of his fielding, responded with the aggression of a man whose job was on the line as he whipped his first ball, from Nannes, through midwicket for four, before launching Schiferli over the covers and into the Mound Stand for six.

Just as Butt was beginning to cut loose, however, he drilled ten Doeschate to Borren at mid-off for 18. Malik launched his innings with two fours in three balls before being badly dropped by Zuiderent at backward point on 14, and when Akmal found his range with a brace of sixes in consecutive overs, Pakistan had reached 77 for 1 with 11 overs remaining, and looked as though they were pulling clear.

But Netherlands showed from a similar position against England that they are a side who will not give up, and Borren combined with the 21-year-old offspinner, Seelaar, to put the brakes back on the innings. Having reached 41 from 29 balls, Akmal found himself frustrated in a beautifully slow and teasing second over from Seelaar, which ended with an ambitious drill over midwicket, and a heart-in-the-mouth juggling catch from Schiferli in front of the Tavern Stand.

The Dutch bowlers maintained their discipline admirably as the overs ticked away. If in doubt they went full, sometimes offering full-tosses, but there was scarcely a long-hop in evidence. Younis dented ten Doeschate's figures by clearing his front foot to swipe Pakistan's fourth six of the innings, then belted Seelaar for two more in two balls to hoist his team past 150 with 15 balls remaining. But Seelaar kept his cool, and his line and length, and before the over was out, de Grooth at long-on had intercepted Younis's next shot in anger.

Schiferli maintained the full-and-straight approach to deny Afridi the room to swing his arms, although he did finally connect with one to drill Nannes out of the ground with four balls remaining. The bowler responded by uprooting his leg stump with the very next delivery, but as Afridi would later go on to show with the ball, sometimes there is simply no stopping him. When the mood takes them, there is sometimes no stopping Pakistan either.