The Black Caps could teach the Proteas a thing or two about playing in major tournaments, says iafrica.com columnist Firdose Moonda.

Daniel Vettori joked that he hoped the South African crowd would support New Zealand in the Champions Trophy final, since he knows they have a ?love/hate? relationship with Australia. It?s true that most South Africans would salivate at the prospect of seeing Australia humiliated and if they can?t rely on their own team to deal our defeat, then a thrashing from the Aussie?s closest cricketing neighbours will have to do.

But South Africa may want to get behind the Black Caps for another reason ? they could teach the national side a thing or two about playing in major tournaments.

For starters, New Zealand didn?t enter the tournament being brash or arrogant. They had very little to boast about, having clocked up a string of poor results against the likes of Sri Lanka, but with some of their best players back, one may have expected the Black Caps to start talking the talk. They didn?t.

Shane Bond didn?t shoot his mouth off and say ?no one will match our fast bowlers in this tournament? ? a la Dale Steyn ? although if Bond had he wouldn?t have been nearly as wrong as Steyn was. Ross Taylor didn?t emulate AB de Villiers and say the Black Caps' ?time had come? even though after reaching nine ICC tournament semifinals (close enough to South Africa?s eight), New Zealand may well have thought their moment had arrived.

Besides their low key attitudes and general nice guy demeanor, it?s been their playing style that South Africa should really look at. New Zealand recognised when they were in must-win situations against both Sri Lanka and England and subsequently rose to the occasion.