(Cricket news) The South Africa tour of New Zealand came to an end with a victory for the visitors. South Africa had lost the first Test by a huge margin but made key recoveries in the second match to beat New Zealand by 198 runs.

The Proteas won the toss and opted to bat first as the openers gave a strong start to the team. Captain Dean Elgar and Sarel Erwee had a 111 run opening stand which was broken after 36 overs when Tim Southee swung the ball back into Elgar which crashed into the stumps. Erwee ws playing in his second test as he pulled a delivery into the ropes off Neil Wagner for a maiden century. After his exit, the next three batters did stay at the crease but could not continue the run scoring like the openers. Marco Jensen tried to extend his stay at the crease but a bouncer by Kyle Jamieson sent back Lutho Sipamla to end the first innings.

Kagiso Rabada took a wicket in the 4th ball of the second innings as Tom Latham went for a duck. Four overs later it was Will Young’s chance to edge the delivery behind as the openers departed before the team could reach the double digit figure. Devon Conway and Henry Nicholls stood for over 100 deliveries to take the team past 50 runs. Colin de Grandhomme scored when the team needed it most, he reached his second Test century and his first in 5 years.

Maharaj only took one wicket in the first innings but it turned out to be the most crucial one, he trapped Daryl Mitchell on the front which gave way for other batters to fall. Grandhomme could not find anybody to hold partnership with and the team fell just 7 runs short of crossing the 300 run mark.

South Africa had a small lead after the collapse of the Balckcaps, the visitors got off to a poor start by losing the first three wickets for 38 runs. Kyle Verreynne kept the team going with his defensive stance, Rassie van der Dussen and Wiaan Mulder guarded their wickets as they had lots of time to score the runs. Rabada provided the late charge with his highest Test score of 47, wicketkeeper Verreynne scored his maiden century with a boundary as the lead was nearing the 400 runs mark. After the completion of 100 overs, Elgar called back the batters to the dressing room as they declared to set a target of 425 for the hosts to win.

After getting a 5 wicket haul in the first innings, Rabada had an even more dangerous spell as he got the openers before they could score a boundary. Devon Conway took back the control from South Africa with a firm knock of 60* at the end of day 4 with the team score reading 94-4. Tom Blundell and Conway were starting to trouble the Proteas with their 80 run partnership but an inswinging yorker by Lutho Sipamla brought down Conway to his feet as the review couldn’t save him. The breakthrough was enough for the rest of batters to follow pursuit, New Zealand fell short by 198 runs as the series ended 1-1.

South Africa: 364 and 354/9 declared

New Zealand: 293/10 and 227/10

Player of the match: Kagiso Rabada, 5/60 and 3/46

Player of the series: Matt Henry, 14 wickets in 4 innings

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