AUCKLAND, 22 March 2004 — New Zealand’s Chris Martin captured his first 10-wicket haul as South Africa suffered a late second innings collapse in their bid to save the second Test of the three-match series yesterday.
At the close of the fourth day, South Africa were 277 for six, still 22 runs adrift of New Zealand’s first innings total with Jacques Rudolph (121) and Shaun Pollock (5) the not out batsmen going into the final day.
After dismissing New Zealand for 595 in the morning, the Proteas set about the tough task of erasing a 299-run first innings deficit in the worse possible fashion, losing skipper Graeme Smith off the first delivery of their second innings.
The Proteas battled back in the afternoon and were cruising at 249 for two after Herschelle Gibbs and Rudolph had put on 103 for the second wicket and the latter had been joined by Jacques Kallis to add 146 for the third.
But Martin, who took six wickets in the first innings, had other ideas and captured three of the four wickets to fall in the last 12 overs of the day.
The initial breakthrough was made by part-time bowler Craig McMillan when he trapped Kallis leg before for 71, putting an end to the burly all-rounder’s bid to emulate Sir Donald Bradman with six centuries in consecutive Test matches.
Playing his first Test for two years, Martin built on the shift in momentum to dismiss Gary Kirsten for one and Neil McKenzie for a duck off the next delivery.
When the new ball was taken, Martin got Mark Boucher to edge a catch to Brendon McCullum as New Zealand pressed for victory.
Martin’s match figures to date are 10-147, the best for a Black Cap against South Africa.
At the other end watching the carnage was Rudolph, who reached his third century during the partnership with Kallis and will need to stay at the crease for as long as possible if the tourists are to retain any hope of saving the match.
“There is still a lot of hard work to be done for them to win,” Rudolph said.
“We’ve got to work through the new ball tomorrow by really knuckling down and concentrating ball-by-ball.”
