WELLINGTON, 26 March 2004 — New Zealand are pledging not to take the easy route of a defensive mindset as they face their final frontier here today with the opportunity to achieve a first series win over South Africa.
For South Africa, the biggest motivating factor going into the third and final Test is the fear of being the first Protea side to lose a series to New Zealand.
Having beaten all other Test-playing nations in a series, the New Zealand Black Caps put themselves in a strong position against South Africa with a comfortable nine-wicket win in the second Test after the first was drawn.
Sitting in an unbeatable position, the temptation is there to play defensively and sit on the 1-0 lead, but coach John Bracewell said that has been ruled out.
“We’ve discussed it and we’re going in with an offensive not defensive attitude,” he said. Scott Styris, one of the heroes of the second Test victory in Auckland, said the challenge of making history was a big factor for the side.
“There is a motto among us at the moment that we don’t want to win battles, we want to win wars,” he said. The groundsman at the Basin Reserve is promising a near-perfect wicket for the Test, and fine weather is forecast for the foreseeable future, increasing the prospect of a result.
Much of New Zealand’s hopes will rest with pace bowler Chris Martin, recalled after two years in wilderness for the second Test where he snared a career best 11-wicket bag, enough to earn him the man of the match award in a Test of records for New Zealand.
The backbone of New Zealand’s mammoth first innings came from career best performances by Styris (170) and Chris Cairns (158), while Cairns became only the sixth player to score 3,000 Test runs and take 200 Test wickets.
Martin also entered the record books with his batting, as his duck in the first innings brought up a world record of nine consecutive scores of nought or nought not out.
South African all-rounder Shaun Pollock is on the brink of an even more substantial performance than Cairns, requiring 102 more runs to become the fifth player to score 3,000 Test runs and take 300 Test wickets.
But the Protea star said the prospect of making personal history came second to the aim of stopping New Zealand making national history.
“We’ve never lost to them before so it’s important we do everything in our power to win this Test and even the series,” he said.
