Published: Mar 09, 2017, 08:25 AM (IST)
Edited: Mar 09, 2017, 09:02 AM (IST)
New Zealand went in to tea at 59 for 1 against South Africa on Day Two of the first Test. The hosts lost their opener Tom Latham early into their first innings off Vernon Philander’s bowling. But since the first breakthrough, opener Jeet Raval and captain Kane Williamson have soaked in the pressure well and stitched a partnership of 44 from 110 deliveries, to take their team out of a precarious position against a probing Proteas bowling. New Zealand are still trailing South Africa by 249 runs, and will need more contribution from Williamson and Raval in the last session to maintain their domination. LIVE CRICKET SCORECARD, New Zealand vs South Africa, 1st Test at Dunedin
In reply to South Africa’s 308 in the first innings, New Zealand had a decent start. However, Latham looked good when he took the crease and appeared to have come out with the intentions of scoring big. He, along with fellow opener Jeet Raval, saw off the initial overs from Kagiso Rabada and Vernon Philander with comfort. However, Philander came round the wicket against the left-handed Latham and got the better of him with a fullish delivery that nipped away. Latham (10) tried to drive through the covers but was beaten by the swing, giving wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock a regulation one catch behind the stumps.
New Zealand had just 15 runs on the board when they lost Latham. Williamson who walked in at No. 3, had a tough task to neutralise the South African pace attack, who were brimming with confidence after drawing opposition’s first blood.
Philander continued bothering Williamson and Raval, angling the ball away. He also varied his pace precisely and kept the Kiwi pair guessing. Rabada, on the other hand, was generating good pace but was not consistent with his line and length. He bowled unplayable deliveries, beating both batsmen all ends up, but wasn’t able to probe the New Zealand batsmen on a consistent basis.
Faf du Plessis made bowling changes after making Philander and Rabada bowl 6 and 7 overs respectively. Philander finished his first spell with figures of 6-2-11-1, while Rabada with 7-2-18-0. Morne Morkel and Keshav Maharaj were summoned as the first change in bowling pair. Morkel, who last played an international Test match 13 months ago, started off well. He come out of a near career-ending injury. In fact, he started with a maiden keeping the pressure constant created earlier by his fellow pacers.
Keshav Maharaj, the slow left-arm orthodox bowler was called in from the other end with slip, short leg and silly mid-off. Maharaj just conceded a single off the last over, which was followed by another maiden from Morkel.
Maharaj, nonetheless, could not keep the pressure intact, failing to maintain line and length and conceding two boundaries off his second over. Williamson was being too strong at his end not allowing South Africa to dominate the proceedings. Seeing the pace and bounce, he resorted to playing on the backfoot against Morkel, which enabled him to push the ball in to the gaps and keep the scoreboard ticking.
Earlier in the second session, South Africa resumed their first innings from 301 for 8 with Rabada and Philander at the crease. Soon, Patel and Boult completed the formality of winding up the Protea tail by granting 7 runs more in the process, that is, on 308. Boult was the star performer, bowling 32.4 overs, yielding 64 runs and getting 4 important wickets. Neil Wagner, the New Zealand workhorse, complimented Boult by taking 3 wickets for 88 runs. Apart from these two, Patel and Jimmy Neesham got 2 and 1 wicket respectively.
Opener Dean Elgar starred for South Africa, scoring his career best of 140 and received good support from du Plessis (52) and Temba Bavuma (64) to propel their side to a challenging total of 308, which looked distant the way the visitor’s inning had begun.
Brief scores
South Africa 301 for 8 (Dean Elgar 140, Temba Bavuma 64; Trent Boult 3 for 57; Neil Wagner 3 for 88) vs New Zealand 59 for 1(Tom Latham 10, Jeet Raval 26*, Kane Williamson 21*; Vernon Philander 1 for 11, Kagiso Rabada 0 for 18) trail by 249 runs.
