South Africa and New Zealand bring the love to low-stakes Valentine's Day clash

They call it the greatest rivalry and they're not talking about India-Pakistan, or cricket at all. Switch to a sports channel anywhere in South Africa or New Zealand, and promotions for a series with a title this grand are about rugby, and a groundbreaking four-Test-match contest between South Africa and New Zealand that will take place this winter.

Most recently, the two rugby giants featured in the southern hemisphere tournament, and 2026 will bring a return to tradition with a months-long tour that is certain to be characterised by aggression. Happily, their cricket teams are far friendlier with each other, which makes Saturday's late match the perfect Valentine's Day fixture (and a nice palette cleanser from an afternoon game that could see some bad blood between England and Scotland).

South Africa's blokes and New Zealand's nice guys generally get on, have coaching staff who have been in both change rooms, and both teams sound like they're ready for the ultimate love-in. "In general, the sporting philosophy is that both countries are sports-mad and naturally very competitive people. We both love the outdoors and sport and competition in general," Kruger van Wyk, who played nine Tests for New Zealand in 2012 and is now South Africa's fielding coach, told ESPNcricinfo. "As kids we grow up outside, so physically we're well-developed, the hand-eye coordination is something we get done from an early age and we have good work ethic - three things would probably sum it up for me."

On the other side, Rob Walter, former South Africa white-ball coach who is now in charge of New Zealand, put it even more simply. "It's a good bunch of guys on both sides of the coin, hungry to do well, super competitive and pretty humble characters throughout."

Okay, enough with niceties already. Surely there has to be some niggle, especially considering the major tournament record is so skewed?

In bilateral ODIs, South Africa have double the number of wins as New Zealand (26 compared with 13) and have won eight out of 10 series but in World Cups, New Zealand have come out on top six out of nine times. In T20Is, South Africa have won seven of out 11 meetings and four out of six series and never lost to them in a T20 World Cup (though they last met them in 2014 and never in a knockout) but New Zealand won the last triangular featuring the two teams, and beat South Africa in all three meetings. A quick analysis of that suggests South Africa usually have the upper hand but New Zealand win it matters. A more considered look would show that South Africa have started doing this too, and their curve turned most dramatically under Walter.

He was the coach who took them to the semi-finals of the 2023 World Cup and their first men's World Cup final at the 2024 T20 tournament, but left the job nine months later for personal reasons. In June 2024, Walter was appointed New Zealand's all-format coach. He has never elaborated on whether a desire to be closer to his family, with whom he emigrated to New Zealand more than a decade ago, or something else was behind his decision to step away from South Africa but he faced growing pressure over a poor bilateral record (winning four out of seven ODI series and one out of eight T20I series) and now suggested teams run better under one coach.

"It's complicated when there's two different voices from a head coach point of view," he said. "Myself and Shuks [Shukri Conrad, who was red-ball-only coach during Walter's tenure] spoke regularly, so it's not like there was friction in any way. We got on great. But at the end of the day, you still sit in an environment where you've got two different head coaches."

Both Conrad and Walter are now all-format coaches of the team they are in charge of and it seems as if Walter prefers it that way, but that's all there is to it. Asked if there were any remnants of regret now that he is facing South Africa again, Walter brushed it off as non-existent, and even went as far as suggesting he is pleased to see his old team.

"No, it's not odd at all. I think if there were any odd feelings, I was able to have that in Zimbabwe [where New Zealand and South Africa played in a T20I triangular in June], which was a lot closer to my leaving than now. Often it's overdone by everyone else really," he said. "At the end of the day, my job is to coach New Zealand. I've always said right from the word go that there's two environments that I probably know the best, South Africa and New Zealand from a cricket point of view."

And shouldn't it least worry South Africa that the opposition coach knows them inside out? "We haven't actually spoken about that," Aiden Markram, South Africa's captain, said at the pre-match press conference. "It's a good point. He'll know all of us pretty well, how each of us operate, the things that bring out the best in us, the things that can maybe challenge us."

But it's not what South Africa are focused on. "I suppose we're at a stage now as a team where I still don't think we're quite near our best, so a lot of the focus is there."

That and the friendship they share with the New Zealand team, who have cruised through their two group matches and are at the top of the Group D points table, on net run-rate. Unless there are a string of upsets, both New Zealand and South Africa will go through to the Super Eights, which may explain the more relaxed nature of this contest, which dominated the pre-game conversation.

"We've always got on really well with the South African sides," New Zealand quick Matt Henry said. "With franchise cricket now as well, you get to know a lot of the players around the world and I think it's brought the game really close together like that. It's always exciting to see some guys you haven't seen for a while and catch up but we know that when we play the game, it's a fierce competition and it's something we love doing."

While Markram was also lavish in his praise of New Zealand, he added another similarity the two sides have, which neither will want to hold for too long. "They're a great bunch of guys. Everyone speaks highly of them," he said. "Their approach to cricket is almost similar to South Africa's in the sense of never quite being frontrunners but always trying to get in there and be a part of the big and successful teams. We share that similarity as well."

Neither South Africa nor New Zealand have won a white-ball World Cup and the race to the trophy is what may end up being the greatest rivalry after all.