Petersen & Duminy Bat Kiwis Into a Corner

Alviro Petersen celebrates
150 with AB deVilliers

The sun came out in Wellington, lasting for a whole day and the Test cricket was robust.

Alviro Petersen and JP Duminy both scored centuries in a third wicket stand of 200 before Duminy edged Mark Gillespie to Ross Taylor at slip for the first of six wickets. Petersen and Duminy had added 60 in the first hour with the stand ending right on drinks. Ab deVilliers added 58 with Petersen before Chris Martin moved one back in at the right handed opened and trapped him in front for his highest Test score. deVilliers, Jacques Rudolph and Dale Steyn all fell as 42 runs were adding to take South Africa past 400. Mark Boucher and Vernon Philander added 55 before they both became victims of Gillespie: Boucher caught by Kane Williamson in the gully as he slashed in search of quick runs and Philander pouched on the mid wicket boundary by Daniel Flynn. Graeme Smith preferred to keep Marchant de Lange fresh but as he's in the Glenn McGrath mold of lower order batsmen, there was little point wasting an extra ball.

Flynn pulls Villander for six

474 was enough and still was at stumps, despite the stubborn batting from Martin Guptill and Dan Flynn. They batted for nearly two hours until stumps, with the only thing resembling a chance being a full bodied shot by Flynn off his legs and straight into the helmet grill of Duminy standing less than two metres away. Guptill was the better of the two early but continues to bring his bat down from point to the ball which is slightly short of a length outside off stump and again looked a candidate for playing on to the woodwork. Flynn, perhaps steadied by the Duminy incident, was very defensive, having only 14 off his first 65 deliveries before welcoming South Africa's most dangerous bowler, de Lange, with a back foot drive to the long off boundary. de Lange only bowled four overs before stumps but he was quick and suddenly had batsmen, who looked dreamily comfortable the over before, hopping about. The four was a signal for Flynn to think of himself as back in the middle order and he took 21 off his remaining 18 deliveries until stumps, including a wonderfully timed pull shot from Philander which landed well back over the fence at forward square leg, let alone the rope. Replays on the infrared showed a white spot parked as if hand painted in the middle of the bat.

There was nothing through the air or off the pitch for the South Africans, who have finally played their four pace men here. With no Jacques Kallis to provide his pace variations, Smith gave Duminy a few overs to send down his off spin but little faith will be invested in him during overnight planning. The Kiwis batted well but despite that, they ended the day still more than 400 hundred behind. Conditions will be cold for the next two days but should stay dry, so Smith can rotate his pace quartet around without risking a sweat in much the same way as Clive Lloyd made famous ... six overs on, six overs off. The pitch seemed to hold no dangers: it's flat and starting to slow down but two days of facing such a quality pace attack as this will test the best of them and New Zealand's batting line up has few who would be contenders for that title. Their tendency has been towards crumbling after a good partnership.

Its a simple equation thanks to to Guptill and Flynn, as the Kiwis can't win in the time left but South Africa can: 20 wickets in six sessions and approximately 180 overs, plus whatever is added on for lost time ... lets say 30 overs. So far in the series, New Zealand has lost 12wickets in 129 overs in Dunedin and 20 in 129 in Hamilton. I think I'd prefer to be South Africa.