Related Links : NZ in South Africa : Scorecard
South African batting held well on the 3rd day at Wanderers to successfully chase the challenging Target of 217 and eventually take the 3-Tests Series 2-0. A good start was half the job done while chasing and that’s what had happened when Boeta Dippenaar and Skipper Graeme Smith provided the ideal start by putting on 69 for the opening wicket. It was a brisk start from the two batsmen as they got these runs in just 14 overs making things easier for the middle order. Although New Zealand did manage to pick up wickets inbetween, South Africa closed the shutters in this Test Match and won comfortably in the end by 4 wickets. New Zealand tried a lot to come back in the game but the opening stand and then the 2nd wicket partnership took SA to the comfort zone.
Dippenaar got out after making a very useful 37 and he played some glorious drives as the New Zealand bowlers were guilty of bowling too many over pitched up deliveries. Chris Martin provided the breakthrough with his pitched up outswinger that enticed Dippenaar to drive away from his body and edge it to the Keeper. In form Hashim Amla then joined Smith and the two batsmen picked up runs whenever the opportunity was there to do so. This 2nd wicket partnership produced 61 runs to make the task of the New Zealanders difficult. Smith who got to a strokefilled half century got out after looking to cut a short delivery that was too close to his body and Franklin was the bowler who got this wicket. Kyle Mills then produced two brilliant deliveries that got Amla and Kallis out to create a bit of panic in the South African dressing room. Amla was bowled by a delivery that drifted in and then seamed away to hit the stumps and Kallis was done in by a nasty lifter that took off the pitch.
The match went beyond the Tea Break and James Franklin provided a small twist in the game by bowling AB de Villiers and Mark Boucher. AB de Villiers was looking to drive a ball that was nipping back sharply on the offside and Boucher played across the line and played onto his stumps. The score was 202 when Boucher was out and another 15 runs to get wasn’t any big task for Prince and Pollock, who saw South Africa home. Ashwell Prince played his part in the chase by remaining unbeaten on an important 43.
For New Zealand to add up 70 more runs this morning, most of the credit will go to Daniel Vettori who went onto score a more than valuable 60. James Franklin had supported him well by scoring 19. Oram, who was expected to play a big role in scoring some important runs for New Zealand was the first one to go this morning as he was looking to drive Steyn’s pitched up delivery on the backfoot to spoon up a catch to mid off where Boeta Dippenaar dived full length forward to take one heck of a catch. Shaun Pollock then broke the 44-run partnership between Vettori and Franklin as the latter didn’t pick up the inswinger from Pollock and decided to shoulder arms. Andrew Hall then did the finishing job as he took two wickets in the next over that of Vettori and Martin in consecutive deliveries. New Zealand were bowled out for 283 leaving a target of 217, which could have been defended on this sort of a track but South Africa batted well to make the target look easy than what it was actually.
Graeme Smith for his half centuries in both the innings rightly got the Man of the Match award and the hostile Makhaya Ntini, who ended up with a bagful of wickets got the Man of the Series award. Interestingly Ntini failed to pick up a single wicket in New Zealand’s 2nd innings and this looks to be a rare case for Ntini of not having any wickets in his bowling figures! South Africa had a better pace attack than New Zealand and that might have been their plus point in this series and also that NZ had lost the firepower of Shane Bond, who could have made the difference with his red hot pace.