Live Cricket Score, New Zealand vs South Africa, 3rd Test, Day 4: NZ on top at stumps
Live Cricket Score, NZ vs SA, 3rd Test, Day 4: NZ on top at stumps
Hello, good morning and welcome to CricketCountry’s live cricket blog and updates’ post from Day Four’s play of the third and final Test between New Zealand and South Africa, being played at the Seddon Park, Hamilton. The honours on Day Three belonged to the hosts, as they ended the day on 321 for 4, taking slender 7-run lead. New Zealand added 254 runs in the day losing 4 wickets. The bulk of those runs came from the inspirational skipper Kane Williamson’s willow, who remained unbeaten on 148. Williamson rewrote two New Zealand batting records in the process. He beat Martin Crowe as fastest to 5000 runs and also equalled his record for most centuries by a Kiwi batsman: 17. Full Cricket Scorecard: New Zealand vs South Africa, 3rd Test at Hamilton
New Zealand started the day with their score reading 67 for no loss. The opening pair of Jeet Raval and Tom Latham added 16 more runs before the latter fell for 50. From here on, Raval and Williamson took the attack to the opposition, adding 190 runs for the second wicket. Raval got to his highest Test score of 88 in the meantime, but missed out on a well-deserved hundred when he was caught behind by Quinton de Kock off Morne Morkel; just the way Latham was dismissed. New Zealand lost two more quick wickets in Neil Broom (12) and Henry Nicholls (0), both of whom were dismissed by Kagiso Rabada.
But Williamson went unperturbed from the other end, adding runs and tumbling records. At stumps on Day Three, he was involved in an unbroken 28-run stand with Mitchell Santner (13)* for the fifth wicket. For South Africa, only Morkel and Rabada had some success coming their way, with the former even getting to the 250-wicket landmark in Tests.
On Day Four, New Zealand will aim to build a huge lead, especially with Williamson still out there. South Africa, on the other hand, will hope for quick wickets, for that is the only way they can stage a comeback in this contest.
Teams:
South Africa: Dean Elgar, Quinton de Kock (wk), Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis (c), Theunis de Bruyn, Temba Bavuma, Vernon Philander, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Morne Morkel
New Zealand: Jeet Raval, Tom Latham, Kane Williamson (c), Neil Broom, Henry Nicholls, Mitchell Santner, BJ Watling (wk), Colin de Grandhomme, Matt Henry, Jeetan Patel, Neil Wagner