Ricky Ponting predicts winner of second semi-final at Champions Trophy
ICC Hall of Famer Ricky Ponting has revealed his prediction for the second semi-final between South Africa and New Zealand at the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.
South Africa are aiming to reach a third ICC final in the space of a year when they take on New Zealand in Lahore on Wednesday in the second Champions Trophy semi.
Having not only qualified for the ICC World Test Championship final, to be played mid-year, along with their run to the 2024 T20 World Cup decider, the Proteas are making a habit of getting to the business end of major cricketing events.
What stands in their way of locking in yet another appearance in a decider is a New Zealand side stacked with talent. It’s a clash of two cricketing heavyweights, currently both inside the ICC’s ODI Rankings top five.
South Africa march into the semis with a confident win | Match Highlights | Champions Trophy 2025
It’s a match-up that’s almost too close to call, but ICC Hall of Famer Ricky Ponting has weighed in on how he predicts the Champions Trophy semi-final will unfold.
Quizzed by Sanjana Ganesan on The ICC Review Podcast*,* Ponting said he is expecting the Proteas to continue their unbeaten tournament run, which so far includes two powerful wins over England and Afghanistan (their contest with Australia in the group stage was washed out).
“They've got a good side, South Africa,” he said.
“If I look at both the sides, I think there's just a little bit more class in that South African line-up. (Kagiso) Rabada looks like he's going well, Marco Jansen took three wickets in his last game.
“(South Africa bat) deep, (they have) an opener that is in really good form in Ryan Rickelton and a strong middle order.
"So I just think they might just have a little bit too much power for New Zealand.”
Ponting did note, however, that if the Black Caps overcome the Proteas, it’ll be off the back of their knack for finding solutions.
“They just find a way,” he said.
“They deserve to be there and they'll be hard to beat again.”
Glenn Phillips' fielding is central to that point, having already proven to be a difference-maker multiple times in the Champions Trophy. He took yet another extraordinary catch against India on Sunday – the wicket of Virat Kohli, no less.
Kohli walks after stunning catch from Glenn Phillips | IND v NZ | Champions Trophy 2025
“It's about the moment as well, it's about who it is, it's about the time in the game,” he continued.
“When it's a catch like that against the opposition team's best player, or when you can take a catch like that to get rid of Virat, then that has more of an impact than it does if you're taking that catch against one of the tail-enders. To take a catch like that, that can be game changing. And I think that's why we all work so hard on our fielding.”
South Africa’s semi-final clash with New Zealand in Lahore gets going on Wednesday, at 2pm local time.
