South Africa stayed on task at the Basin Reserve Wellington and will go into the final day with a target in mind. It won't be a run target, as such, but a targeted number of overs in which they will believe they can dismiss the New Zealanders. The best of all options would be to have a second new ball available at the end of the day should the Kiwis hang on but to do that, they would have to offer to juicy a target by declaring overnight. A lot will depend on whether they umpires are still making early starts to make up for Wellington's foul weather on the first two days.
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| Ross Taylor broke his wrist |
Leading by 274 at stumps and bearing in mind the Kiwis made only 275 in the first innings and it was their highest total of the series, Graeme Smith reasonably figure that 75 overs will be all he needs as he only has to take 9 wickets following the broken wrist sustained by New Zealand's skipper Ross Taylor in the first innings. Morne Morkel pushed one up into his high chest area and Taylor was struck on the wrist trying to avoid worse damage. He'll take no further part in the game. With the world's worst No 11 in their side, its fair to say South Africa only needs 8 wickets. They started day four needing three wickets a session for the outright and despite having to bat again, they are still ahead of schedule. They are not likely to drop four catches again in the second innings.
The first seven all made starts for New Zealand in what was a brave batting display until tea. The openers, Martin Guptil and Dan Flynn continued on in the morning, taking their partnership to 86 before Vernon Philander made the inevitable breakthrough, finding the edge of Flynn's bat and Boucher the poucher did the rest. Brendon McCullum and Guptil added a further 50 but both were gone in the last six overs before lunch, with Dale Steyn returning for some of the spoils. New Zealand were 3-145 at the long break. After Taylor left at 160, Dean Brownlie and Kane Williamson - young men with New Zealand's future in their hands - combated and then blunted the frustrated South African attack until just before tea. The new ball was thrown to Philander instead of Steyn and he got immediate results when Brownlie top edged a pull shot to fine leg where Steyn showed no sign of disagreement with the captain and took a good diving catch. By tea, New Zealand were 4-231, effectively five, but fighting hard.
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| Vernon Philander 6-81 |
After tea, the house of cards fell down, as New Zealand lost 5-44 in only eleven overs. Philander roared through the tail, bagging another sixfa and taking his wicket tally to 51 wickets in just his 7th Test. Only Charlie Turner (6 Tests) and Rodney Hogg (113 days) have done in faster. Steyn and Marchant de Lange played supporting roles but egos don't seem to be a part of the South African equation.
Chris Martin made a heroic 2 not out - as good as a century to his side in the circumstances. With Gillepsie, they added 12 for the last wicket and forced South Africa to bat again.
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Graeme Smith batting
with a target in mind |
Smith and Alviro Petersen made light work of the Kiwis, clearly in search of enough runs to expedite a declaration. Their 75 run partnership has come at five an over which is just what was needed. New Zealand didn't help matters, Gillespie bowling with as many as seven men on the boundary at one stage and giving away ten an over from good running between the wickets. Even when his bat is free flowing its hard to imagine how the South African captain has amassed 8000 runs with such a wicket bat outside off stump. Even in 25 overs he inside edged three times. Special commendation to Mark Gillespie who took six first innings wickets and was bowling this afternoon with a split in the front of the big to on his back foot, adding difficult to the already large handicap of being captained without imagination.
New Zealand spent most of the day trying to avoid defeat. It would be nice tomorrow if they died trying to win but I wouldn't be betting my house on it.
Yes rugby is king in NZ, yes they have fewer resources for cricket than almost any other test nation; but this has been an insipid performance from New Zealand. And I mean for the series. Playing on their home turf they have been reckless, defensive and playing like 'also rans'. Obviously SA have the best pace bowling attack in the world (some may put up England here but Broad is not as good as he gets made out to be) but when NZ have been in positions of strength they've thrown it away every time. Some of the shots to have got out to would result in the Damien Martyn treatment in another country.
ReplyDeleteThis series' performance makes their Aus heroics look like a freak occurrence.
Lango, you've right about Vettori. Unfortunately I have to agree he's a trundler who can bat.
What's so unfortunate about agreeing with me?
ReplyDeleteIts the defensiveness that Dan Vettori bought back to Kiwi cricket during his term as captain that I find so offensive. Under Stephen Fleming, with much the same cattle or at least similar, the Kiwis played attacking cricket and stayed in games by placing opponents on the back foot. Now, after Vettori and on with Taylor, its all about adopting positions that might save games. They have a couple of good batsmen (Williamson and Brownlie) and a real prospect with the ball (Bracewell) and they spend all their time talking crease occupation rather than scoring runs or bowling containing lines. Tests are won when you take twenty wickets or con the opponents into giving some away.
I had a mate who played for many years in New Zealand. Apart from being a cricket nut and a fine off spin bowler, he was one of the shrewdest and most aggressive captains I've played with or against. He always claimed the Kiwis did well to field a side, let alone produce quality players as the 11 in the Test team were the only blokes in the country who were no good at Rugby!
Unfortunate because I wanted to believe he was as good as the majority of people believe he is! In reality he's a slow bowler with great control but no threat whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteThey may concentrate on crease occupation but they so readily throw away wickets (Taylor and McCullum notably this series after saving their team's arse!) that they either must be confused or suffer brain fades. The best batsmen in the world lose their heads less than the rest. That's one marked difference between guys like Dravid and Kallis and then Taylor. Taylor has the ability to be up there with the top 10 batsmen in the world but his temperament needs work.