Black Caps grab honours amid alarms
They were probably two wickets away from the perfect day, New Zealand, but it still wasn’t a bad seven hours’ work on a bizarre day at Dunedin’s University Oval yesterday
With two days to play in the first cricket test the Black Caps kept their noses in front of South Africa who ended 38-1 in their second innings in the gloom. The tourists lead by just five overall with a minimum 183 overs remaining in the test, and rain forecast to sweep in tomorrow.
After Kane Williamson notched his 16th test century, to equal Ross Taylor’s tally as the senior batsman limped out to bat with a torn calf muscle, the Black Caps led by 33 then Trent Boult removed opener Stephen Cook in his first over.
It was a strange dismissal and Cook appeared to hit pad not ball, but looked happy to depart. First innings centurymaker Dean Elgar and Hashim Amla guided it to stumps and will resume in the morning, an early start after 40 minutes were lost due to a combination of bad light and a baffling ground evacuation when a fire alarm went off.
A draw looks the favoured result, given potential weekend weather interruptions, but the Black Caps took the honours for a second straight day and will have a glimmer of hope if they can strike some early blows today.
Spin duo Jeetan Patel and Mitchell Santner will be the key men with the dry pitch starting to turn. They fired down 10 of New Zealand’s 18 overs late in the day but couldn’t break through.
As if there wasn’t enough drama on the pitch.
Late in the day, in the gathering gloom, an increasingly vocal crowd were evacuated after something activated the grandstand fire alarm just after 5pm. It caused a baffling 20-minute delay as players stood in the centre and everyone else was told to leave, then re-enter after the Fire Service gave the main stand the all clear.
Otherwise the day belonged to Williamson, and to a lesser extent Taylor and BJ Watling, as New Zealand notched 341 and claimed a first innings lead for the first time in seven tests against South Africa, since the last time they met in Dunedin in 2012.
With Taylor diagnosed with a low grade calf tear, Williamson carried the extra burden in his usual unflappable way. It wasn’t pretty early, but mightily effective as Williamson added five runs to his overnight 78 in the first hour, after going scoreless for his first 26 deliveries of the day.
Then with the pitch flat and the ball old and keeping lower, Williamson unleashed some of the best straight drives anyone is likely to witness. His century came up off 195 balls as the crowd rose and roared, and his fighting knock spanned a tick under six and a half hours.