South Africa v New Zealand Second Test Thread

[Duty281]

A surprisingly competitive match in Dunedin means we go into this second Test in Hamilton at 0-0.

Start time 1030 (2130 GMT)
Big Picture

The tone for the series was set in Dunedin with a competitive match being cut short by rain. The result, or lack thereof, has left the series on a fairly even keel heading into the second round. Both sides insist they felt in with a chance of winning the first one. Although the experts believed South Africa were more likely to take eight wickets on the final day than New Zealand were to score 264 runs, both teams believe they had momentum on their side.

In sport, particularly a Test series, it's a clichéd but important thing to have the pendulum swinging your way because it dictates the mood of the camp. In this case, the two teams each think the advantage lies with them, which should provide a hard-fought Test.

For South Africa, an early downer will be that the chance to claim the No.1 ranking and the $175,000 payout that will be made on April 1 is gone. But the opportunity to win a series away from home remains. As the best travellers in the game over the last five years, building on that trend will be vital.

They admitted to a concern with starting slowly, with Alviro Petersen saying the first day of the Dunedin Test "wasn't ideal for us". Now that they have found their stride, they want to keep it there. South Africa's big guns fired with the bat in the second innings, the bowlers did it in the first innings but the collective effort did not come together as quickly as they would have liked. Ideally, South Africa would want to score the same amount of runs in the second innings as they did in the first and give themselves enough time to bowl their opposition out twice, which Graeme Smith believes they are capable of doing.

New Zealand have more general worries. The coach John Wright spoke about the importance of taking 20 wickets and Ross Taylor has emphasised that the top five need to score the bulk of the runs because of the balance of the side. They seem to have accepted that the gulf between them and South Africa is reflected in more than just rankings - with the former at No.2 and the latter No.8 - but their determination to close that is evident.

Form guide
(Most recent first)
New Zealand DWWLW
South Africa DWLWL

In the spotlight

Having moved down the order, Brendon McCullum has taken on the key role of No.3 and appears to be enjoying it. He has shown his temperament can be suited to anchoring or being the aggressor. Having just come off a prolonged stint as captain during Ross Taylor's injury lay-off, McCullum has established his place as the senior statesman of the side, both on and off the field. If New Zealand are do to well, McCullum has to play a leading role.

Dale Steyn's lean patches are usually followed by destructive bursts. With more swing in the air than Dunedin and a pitch that looks like it could have something in it for the seamers, Steyn will have the conditions on his side in Hamilton. What will be interesting to see is whether he will have the mindset as well. Steyn bowled some unplayable spells in Dunedin, which remarkably didn't find the edge as often as he would have liked, a sign that his next blistering performance is not far away.

Team news

Rob Nicol will keep his place as one of the opening batsmen after a tough debut. McCullum will bat at No.3, where John Wright said he had been "pretty comfortable". The only question is who will replace Tim Southee and the choice seems to be between Brent Arnel and Mark Gillespie, who has not played Test cricket for New Zealand since 2008. Andrew Ellis, who could also bolster the batting, has the outside chance. Tarun Nethula, the legspinner who was also brought into the squad for this game, is unlikely to play.

New Zealand (probable) 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Rob Nicol, 3 Brendon McCullum, 4 Ross Taylor (capt), 5 Kane Williamson, 6 Daniel Vettori, 7 Kruger van Wyk (wk), 8 Doug Bracewell, 9 Trent Boult, 10 Mark Gillespie/Brent Arnel, 11 Chris Martin.

Injury may keep AB de Villiers out of the side after he sprained his ankle during practice on Tuesday, though he tweeted that he 'should be ready'. JP Duminy and Robin Peterson both batted in the nets on Wednesday and should de Villiers be unfit, Duminy is likely to make a return in the longest format. The rest of the line-up should be unchanged with Imran Tahir set to play, in anticipation of turn later on in the match, and Marchant de Lange to miss out, despite the green strip.

South Africa (probable) 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Alviro Petersen, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 AB de Villiers/JP Duminy, 6 Jacques Rudolph, 7 Mark Boucher (wk), 8 Vernon Philander, 9 Dale Steyn, 10 Morne Morkel, 11 Imran Tahir.

Pitch and conditions

A green pitch greeted the eye two days before the match and it remained that way on the eve of the game. The grass will likely be cut the morning of the Test, before the sun has had the opportunity to bake the surface too much. Talk is that it will be a traditional strip, with something in it for the bowlers on the first morning and friendly for the batsmen for the rest of the match. Heavy rain is forecast for the fifth day, Monday, which could mirror the first Test and the teams will want to secure a result before the heavens open.

Stats and trivia

New Zealand have their best winning record in the second Test of a series. They have won the second Test 22% of the time, compared with 19% for the first Test
This ground has recent fond memories for South Africa - Richard Levi scored his record-breaking T20 century here last month
Quotes

"I haven't any messages from England saying thank you for stopping them. If we keep fighting like we did in Dunedin we'll be competitive."
New Zealand captain Ross Taylor said his team have not over-analysed preventing South Africa from becoming the top-ranked Test team

"Maybe the toss will play a more crucial role. The groundsman seems to think that it will brown quite quickly. Maybe it will have good carry throughout the Test, which would be good."
Graeme Smith would not be drawn into whether he would bowl first in Hamilton, but expects the toss to have a bigger say than in Dunedin

Cricinfo Preview

Casting an eye over the weather, it should be fine for the first four days but day 5 could be a bit interrupted. Game starts at 21:30 GMT.

[Duty281]

Graeme Smith has won the toss and will FIELD first.

[Duty281]

Team news. South AFrica are unchanged. 2 changes for the Kiwis, Gillespie and Arnel come in for Southee and Boult.

New Zealand team
RJ Nicol, MJ Guptill, BB McCullum, LRPL Taylor*, KS Williamson, DL Vettori, CFK van Wyk†, BJ Arnel, DAJ Bracewell, MR Gillespie, CS Martin

South Africa team
GC Smith*, AN Petersen, HM Amla, JH Kallis, AB de Villiers, JA Rudolph, MV Boucher†, DW Steyn, VD Philander, M Morkel, Imran Tahir

[Biltong]

I don't understand why we chose to bowl first, there is nothing happening.

[msp83]

NZ, at one point going strong at 133-2. 5 wickets later, the score remained the same!.

[msp83]

Chief instigators? Dale Steyn and Philander!. Withi help from Morne and Tahir!.

[Duty281]

Ouch. 133/2 to 185 all out. The NZ bowlers did fight back a bit, SA are 27/2 at stumps.

[hampo17]

Seemed poor batting more than anything during that collapse by New Zealand, Smiths wicket as well although a superb catch was a very loose shot.

[Pete C (Kiwireddevil)]

Now where did I put that <depressed, resigned sigh> emoticon

[Biltong]

It isn't over yet Kiwi, wait till we have finished our first innings, then you may look for it.

[Fists of Fury]

McCullum and Taylor are to blame yet again, unfortunately. Threw away a solid start with mindless shots.

[Biltong]

That pitch doesn't look bad for batting in my opinion, there was nothing untoward during the day.

[Pete C (Kiwireddevil)]

That pitch doesn't look bad for batting in my opinion, there was nothing untoward during the day.

It's often the way in NZ, teams arrive and see a pitch with a lot of green and get excited. However if the atmospherics aren't there to help out the colour doesn't matter too much.

[alfie]

Haven't been able to watch any of this today, but it sounds like a lively sort of day.
You're all saying the pitch was a good one for batting so that isn't saying much for the NZ batting lineup ...

However I see Chris Martin has already removed his "bunny" Smith so all is not lost for the Kiwis ... Martin had a good day did he not ? Even got red ink earlier on , albeit without actually scoring any runs

[Fists of Fury]

NZ were very well set, Alfie, before in a repeat of the 1st Test McCullum and Taylor fell in quick succession to daft shots, leading to a cataclysmic collapse.

[Biltong]

However I see Chris Martin has already removed his "bunny" Smith so all is not lost for the Kiwis

Mate, you only qualify as someone's bunny if you continually fail as a batsman, and then only if he manages to dominate you as a bowler.

Not when you play freely and get out to a loose shot and just scored 100 in your previous innings.

[Guest]

what a suprise another batting collaspe from the kiwi's. However well bowled south africa

[Duty281]

The New Zealand fightback continues, Gillespie has snared 2 big wickets, Kallis and Amla. 69/4 now.

[Duty281]

Gillespie has Petersen out! 84/5, very fine effort from New Zealand. Keep it up NZ!

[Corporalhumblebucket]

88 - 6 South Africa in disarray. Rudolph out cheaply....

[Biltong]

well , well, what an interesting day's cricket.

NZ bowled out cheaply on day one for 185, we lost two early wickets on day one and started today on 27/2

Then we lost 4 early wickets and went to lunch on 133/6

We kept scoring runs at a fair pace regardless of the wickets, but it was a funny session. It was almost like you couldn't understand where the wickets came from. Admittedly Gillespie was bowling well, but the pitch never really behaved funny, one or two kept a little low.

AB de Villiers and Boucher made a good recovery and had a 63 run partnership which steadied the south africans, but in all honesty I didn't think we will even get close to NZ's score.

Our tail wagged for the first time in probably 3 years and the last three wickets brought another 102 runs. Morkel got 35*, might be his higest score, even tahir got 16.

So NZ started their secnd innings with a defecit of 67, the first three wickets fell quickly and soon NZ was 3/7, Taylor and Williamson started a fight back and added 57 runs before Taylor got bowled LBW by Steyn for a reverse swing full delivery.

They are now 65/4 with a deficit of 2 runs still.

We are in the pound seats now and must make sure they don't add more than another 100 runs.

[Pete C (Kiwireddevil)]

<resigned, depressed sigh>

Though whichever selector championed recalling Mark Gillespie after 2 years in the wilderness must be patting himself on the back - 27 vital runs in the first innings and 5-59

[Biltong]

did you watch a bit of it?

I couldn't beleive that this pitch is making so many wickets fall. It is bizarre.

[Pete C (Kiwireddevil)]

I caught a little bit of the morning session. It really doesn't look a minefield.

[hampo17]

So many poor shots. As you say Kiwi the pitch isn't a minefield, infact I don't think it's doing anything. I saw the Taylor wicket on SSN this morning but it didn't show the referral, was it just clipping the leg stump as it looked like it was going down live.

[alfie]

However I see Chris Martin has already removed his "bunny" Smith so all is not lost for the Kiwis

Mate, you only qualify as someone's bunny if you continually fail as a batsman, and then only if he manages to dominate you as a bowler.

Not when you play freely and get out to a loose shot and just scored 100 in your previous innings.

Oh biltong surely you know me better than that ? I have the greatest respect for Smith and only made that (rather tongue in cheek) comment because it seemed remarkable that that was the eighth time Martin has dismissed him in Tests , which I understand is more than any other bowler...I think Smith has made a few runs on the way...

Oh and also I must admit I thought it might get a bit of a reaction from some perhaps over-sensitive South African fans


Anyway you can relax , you have this Test in the bag now ... but not yet the No 1 ranking

[Biltong]

We like being number two, we make more teams nervous blowing in their necks than when we are in the number one spot.

[Biltong]

So many poor shots. As you say Kiwi the pitch isn't a minefield, infact I don't think it's doing anything. I saw the Taylor wicket on SSN this morning but it didn't show the referral, was it just clipping the leg stump as it looked like it was going down live.

the referral was quite clear hampo. It showed the ball would strike low down inside leg stump.

when i looked at the replay before they showed the actual full review I though it pitched on leg stump, and would swing away, but in fact it pitched inbetween middle and leg.

[hampo17]

Cheers Bilt

[Guest]

Imran Tahir has been very econmomcial in this game

[Duty281]

We may as well call it 1-0 South Africa. NZ will need at least 252 more runs with only 6 wickets left which they won't do. Not many Tests finish on Day 3, this one may well do.

[Duty281]

And it is 1-0 South Africa. Philander with six wickets and SA winning by nine wickets in their chase of 101.

[Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler]

SAs bowling is a bit less impressive when you discover this New Zealand teams combined batting average is about 223, thats about the same as England without their top 4 bothering to turn up. NZ are even weaker than Bangladesh in the batting, only one player averaging above 40 in the side...reminds me of England when they hit rock bottom in the 90s.

A thoroughly clinical performance all the same, underlining SAs status as the second best team in the world.

[Biltong]

SAs bowling is a bit less impressive when you discover this New Zealand teams combined batting average is about 223, thats about the same as England without their top 4 bothering to turn up. NZ are even weaker than Bangladesh in the batting, only one player averaging above 40 in the side...reminds me of England when they hit rock bottom in the 90s.

A thoroughly clinical performance all the same, underlining SAs status as the second best team in the world.

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