By Patrick Compton.
Disciplined bowling by the Proteas kept New Zealand’s batsmen in shackles, but they missed a great chance to get rid of master batsman Kane Williamson as the home team reached tea on 125 for two in 52 overs on the first day of the first Tegel test at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui on Sunday.
South Africa’s four seamers had bowled extremely tightly in an attritional session to frustrate the New Zealand pair of Williamson and Rachin Ravindra who only managed to add 60 runs in 27 overs at a laboured run-rate of 2.22 to the over. Bazball it was not.
But the point of tying batsmen down is to encourage a wild shot and this finally happened when a frustrated Williamson attempted a wild slog off medium-pacer Ruan de Swardt when he had reached a laboured 45. The ball sliced off his bat over extra-cover but unfortunately for the Proteas, fielder Edward Moore spilt the chance as he ran backwards to track down the swirling ball. It was a tough chance, but the dismissal of Williamson would have been just reward for disciplined bowling.
As it was, Williamson reached his 34th test half-century in 144 balls (9x4s) just before tea. He and Ravindra (48 in 114 balls) have so far compiled 86 in 213 balls for the third wicket and will no doubt look to up their run-rate in the final session
Credit must go to the pace attack of Dane Paterson, Duanne Olivier, De Swardt and Tshepo Moreki for ensuring that the Black Caps were only able to advance their score at a crawl throughout the afternoon despite not losing a wicket.
Ravindra played a lot of good-looking strokes for none as skipper Neil Brand’s placing of his field was spot on.
New Zealand: Tim Southee (capt), Tom Latham, Devon Conway, Kane Williamson, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell (wk), Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Kyle Jamieson, Matt Henry
South Africa: Neil Brand (capt), Edward Moore, Raynard van Tonder, Zubayr Hamza, David Bedingham, Keegan Petersen, Ruan de Swardt, Clyde Fortuin (wk), Duanne Olivier, Tshepo Moreki, Dane Paterson.