Familiar surrounds for NZ for semi-final against South Africa

After going through all the tangled scheduling, New Zealand returns to its recent favorite venue in Pakistan when it takes on South Africa in the second semifinal of the Champions Trophy in Lahore on Wednesday.

- Agencies

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The complex scheduling of the tournament, especially at the tail end of the group stage, saw both South Africa and Australia flying out to Dubai in the knowledge that one team would have to return to Pakistan once the semifinal matchups were confirmed after India played its last group game against New Zealand on Sunday.

The exhausting itinerary was because the Indian government refused permission for its team to travel to Pakistan due to political reasons. This left the ICC, Pakistan Cricket Board and the Board of Control for Cricket in India with no other option but to go for a hybrid model and organize all of India's matches in Dubai, including the semifinal and March 9 final if it qualifies.

India trumped New Zealand by 44 runs, which meant Australia stayed in Dubai for the Tuesday's semifinal against India. South Africa returned to Pakistan with Heinrich Klaasen admitting the short trip to Dubai was "not ideal".

"We knew that there was a big possibility that we might have to fly up and down," Klaasen said. "It's not ideal for the bodies, but at least we had some time to get out and walk around and get loose and just had some nice steak, to be fair.

"We knew it's going to happen and it's part of the scheduling so two teams had to do it, and unfortunately, we were one of them."

New Zealand and India were the only two teams in the eight-team tournament which played all their three group matches as rain washed out two games in Rawalpindi, while Australia's final group game against Afghanistan also ended without a result when heavy rain left the outfield too soggy during Australia's run chase.