NZ cleaned up by Steyn remover

A quick kill turned into an agonising death for the Black Caps as South Africa’s ruthless attack toyed with them before claiming a deserved series win at Centurion.

Dale Steyn bowled out both opening batsmen in the first over as New Zealand collapsed to be 7-4 after 19 balls. They finally fell for 195, losing the second and final test by 204 runs with a day to spare.

Steyn had the luckless Tom Latham transfixed after his first delivery cannoned onto the stumps via a glove.

A continuation of Martin Guptill’s underwhelming output against top-tier nations then contributed to a rare bowling achievement in test history when he sparred to Hashim Amla at slip. Not since 1982 had two test openers fallen for golden duck since. The last time was when Bob Willis dismissed Pakistan’s Mudassar Nazar and Mohsin Khan at Headingley in 1982.

Steyn’s double breakthrough consigned New Zealand’s premier strokemakers to mount a recovery but Ross Taylor and wounded captain Kane Williamson soon contributed to another unwanted Black Caps’ achievement.

Taylor, who ran himself out in the first innings, was at least absolved from blame a second time as he retreated for a five-ball duck, smiling ruefully after Steyn picked out a crack and trapped him lbw after the delivery skidded on.

Even Steyn was reluctant to celebrate, though the wicket was significant as he joined Wasim Akram – briefly – as 11th equal on the list of most successful test bowlers.

Williamson, who needed treatment on a finger after being struck by Vernon Philander, soon succumbed to the same bowler on five when caught behind to set a new all-time low at 7-4 – New Zealand’s worst score for the loss of four batsmen in 412 tests since their debut in 1930.

Fortunately Henry Nicholls, who capped a dogged display with a career-best 76, and BJ Watling added 68 for the fifth wicket before offspinner Dane Piedt had the wicketkeeper lbw for 32 from 87 balls.

Nicholls, who had tapered off since making an encouraging 59 on debut against Australia at the Basin Reserve in February, brought up his second test fifty from 104 balls to complement his 36 in New Zealand’s mediocre response to the Proteas 481-8 declared.

Entrusted with the No 5 berth vacated by Brendon McCullum, Nicholls eased doubts about his suitability for the test arena by twice responding to adversity with mature application. Nicholls even handled Steyn relatively comfortably during a disciplined nine-over opening spell where he was occasionally unplayable while taking 3-12.

Steyn had the final say – and wicket – when Nicholls was caught in the deep with the score on 195 to end a bold 140-ball stay.

Steyn finished with 5-33 from 16.2 overs.

Williamson regretted his decision to bowl first after winning the toss.

‘‘If you could save the team that batted first was going to get 450, yes I would have [batted],’’ he said. ‘‘The pitch was soft and it was very green . . . I certainly didn’t expect it to break up as much as it did from that second day onwards.

‘‘It was a tough one. Credit to South Africa, the first innings of this match was probably the deciding factor in who won and they outplayed us.’’