Related Links : New Zealand’s Tour of South Africa : Scorecard
New Zealand’s batting woes didn’t leave them in the second and final test as well. At the SuperSport Park in Centurion, just the 56 overs were possible on the first day because of poor light conditions in the final session. But those 56 overs saw lot of progress done in terms of the match with New Zealand losing seven wickets in the first innings along with a batsman injured and possibly out of the innings.
The Kiwis started the match full of problems with no Shane Bond, sent back home because of abdominal pain and Jacob Oram who was out with a hamstring injury. They gave Debut to Mark Gillespie while Lou Vincent got his opportunity in the batting line-up. Vettori won the toss and decided to bat first rather than having his side chase the leather. After an early fall of Papps to Ntini, NZ seemed to have consolidated through Craig Cumming and Lou Vincent and at lunch they looked good at 84 for 1.
The post lunch session went SA’s way in a strong way with the fast bowlers finding the right lengths to have the batsmen in all kinds of problems. First it was Lou Vincent falling after an adventurous 33 (from 64 balls with 4 fours and a six) and then a face blow for Craig Cumming which floored him along the turf. Cumming was bounced out by the wicked Dale Steyn and the batsman got it straight into his face trying to go for a pull. That was the end of the opener, his brave innings had to come to a halt after battling hard for 107 balls to score 47 (with 8 fours). He had to spend the rest of the time in the hospital to check the extent of the damage.
The rest of the New Zealand batting with the exception of Stephen Fleming seemed to have got their psyche down as they came and went back in a procession. Just Fleming was standing tall but his innings too came to an end after a brief fight, 43 from 57 with 6 fours and a six. New Zealand finished at 187 for 8 with Skipper Daniel Vettori on an unbeaten 16 along with Chris Martin, the last man. Steyn has got deadly figures of 4 for 42 in 14 overs along with five maidens.