New Zealand 185 and 65-4 (Kane Williamson unbeaten 41, Dale Steyn 2-10, Vernon Philander 2-21) trail South Africa 253 (AB de Villiers 83, Morne Morkal unbeaten 35, Mark Gillespie 5-59) by 3 runs.
New Zealand scored 185 runs in their first innings, South Africa responded with 253 and their quickies came back strongly in the second innings of the home side who was reeling at 65 after losing their four top order batsmen.
The match has tilted towards the visitors at the close of the second day’s play at Seddon Park, Hamilton on March 16. 2012.
Earlier, the Proteas started their first innings at 27 for the loss of two wickets after 11 overs, Alviro Petersen and Hashim Amla were at the crease with 8 and 2 runs respectively. They started off cautiously and managed just one runs in the initial four overs, three of them being consecutive maidens. The silence was broken when nine runs were scored off the 16th over and the runs started appearing on the board.
The Kiwis got the first breakthrough when Amla was caught by Williamson at backward point off Gillespie for 16. The third wicket fell at 63 when Gillespie was unable to read by Jacques Kallis, Petersen and Jacques Rudolph who went back to the pavilion after the addition of 25 runs in the total.
AB de Villiers took charge of the situation as Mark Boucher secured the other end and the runs they started the journey towards prosperity. They shared a solid partnership of 63 runs for the seventh wicket when Boucher was clean bowled by Gillespie again for 24. De Villiers kept on consolidating and shared couple of good partnerships with the late order batsmen before he was bowled by Daniel Vettori for well earned 83 runs.
Morne Morkel remained unbeaten for 35 off 44 with one six and five fours as they were bowled out for 253 runs in 77.3 overs.
Mark Gillespie was the main destroyer with five wickets, Chris Martin held two as Doug Bracewell, Vettori and Williamson shared one wicket each.
The Black Caps faced a first innings deficit of 68 runs when they went in to bat for the second time in the match. The South African pace duo of Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander were in dangerous mood and the Kiwi batsmen were unable to cope with their lethal bowling. Their top three batsmen went back to the pavilion for a mere seven runs as Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson provided some resistance and took the score to 64.
Taylor became the second victim of Steyn when he was declared leg before wicket for 17 runs off 72 balls without a single boundary. Williamson remained unbeaten for 41 off 87 with 7 fours and Daniel Vettori was yet to open his account.
Steyn and Philander once again were the main strikers with two wickets each and there is still a lot to come from them in the match.
South Africa was still ahead with three runs as New Zealand was reeling at 65 for four wickets. The visitors are well ahead in the match and are capable of folding the result in their favour on the third day.