Bad light stopped play just nine balls after tea on the fourth day of the first Castle Lager Test between South Africa and New Zealand at Supersport Park on Tuesday. This means the players have to return on Wednesday to wrap up what appears to be an inevitable defeat for New Zealand.
When the players left the field, New Zealand were 98-7, and still needed another 151 runs to win.
Although Hamish Marshall, Daniel Vettori and James Franklin are all capable of scoring runs, the history of the Test so far has been that the wicket has been trickiest in the morning, flattening out later in the day.
Makhaya Ntini and Dale Steyn were the thorns in the Black Caps’ flesh on the fourth day. First, they managed to stay in for half an hour and add an important 19 runs to the South African total before Vettori bamboozled Ntini and had him leg before wicket for 16, which included three fours.
South Africa were all out for 299, for an overall lead of 248.
Then the two opening bowlers tore into the New Zealand top order, reducing the visitors to 34-6 at lunch. Ntini struck twice in his second over, with Peter Fulton caught behind by Boucher for four, and two balls later, Kyle Mills — sent in up the order — was caught by Boeta Dippenaar without scoring.
Dale Steyn weighed in next when Fleming — playing in his 100th Test — drove him straight to Jacques Kallis at first slip for six, and in his next over, he got the wicket of Scott Styris, who, playing well away from his body, guided the ball into Boucher’s gloves.
Nathan Astle was next to go, caught at third slip by AB De Villiers off Ntini for two, but the biggest cheer came when Jacob Oram, who made 133 in New Zealand’s first innings, was clean bowled by Ntini, also for two.
Hamish Marshall got a nasty blow to the ribs from Ntini, and had to receive attention on the field, but he and Brendon McCullum took the attack to the South Africans, and shared a seventh wicket partnership of 45 which restored a measure of respectability to the New Zealand score.
Their partnership ended when Steyn, bowling much more accurately than in the first innings, claimed McCullum’s wicket to achieve his best Test figures. His previous best had been 2-26 against England in Durban in 2004/2005.
McCullum was caught in the slips by Dippenaar for 33. His runs came off just 38 balls, and included two fours and two sixes.
Marshall and Vettori had put on 25 runs together when the umpires took the players off the field. Marshall was not out on 22, and Vettori had 18 — including a top-edged six off Pollock.
Ntini ended the day with figures of 4-41 — 9-135 in the match so far — and Steyn had 3-35.
Play was finally called off at nine minutes past four, and will start half an hour early, at 9am, on Wednesday. — Sapa