A record eighth-wicket partnership of 256 by Stephen Fleming and James Franklin — including a double century for Fleming — put New Zealand firmly in control of the second Castle Lager Test at Newlands.
When the players left the field on the second day on Friday, New Zealand had 535 for eight and the South Africans were left ruing their decision to put the visitors in to bat.
Play started an hour-and-a-half late, because of a wet outfield, caused by dew, and mist that enveloped Newlands.
South Africa managed to take just two New Zealand wickets throughout the day — one at the start of the day, and the second at the end of the day, when Fleming was bowled by Ashwell Prince, not normally recognised as a bowler, for 262. It was Prince’s maiden Test wicket.
The first wicket fell in the third over of the day, when Daniel Vettori mistimed a pull shot off Makhaya Ntini, and hit the ball straight to Andre Nel at mid-on. It was the third delivery with the new ball, and with New Zealand on 279 for seven, South Africa must have thought they would be batting soon after lunch, but it was not to be.
Fleming and Franklin piled on the runs, and each run added to South Africa’s agony. Fleming’s ninth Test century came up off 190 balls, his 150 off 267, and his 200 — his third double century — off 331.
Their partnership was the highest eighth-wicket partnership for New Zealand against South Africa, passing the record 113 set by Jacob Oram and Daniel Vettori at Hamilton in 2003/04, and also the highest partnership for any wicket for New Zealand against South Africa, surpassing the 225 for the seventh wicket by Chris Cairns and Oram in Auckland in 2003/04.
Graeme Smith tried everything to get the two New Zealanders out — he even brought Hashim Amla on to bowl just before tea, and Ashwell Prince towards the close of play, but Fleming and Franklin played superbly. Franklin reached his second Test 50 off 161 balls in just more than two-and-a-half hours.
They both had some luck — Fleming was dropped by Boeta Dippenaar five balls after lunch, when he was on 136. It was a dolly of a catch, which slipped through Dippenaar’s fingers. Jacques Kallis missed a difficult catch off Franklin when he was on 28, and he also dropped Fleming on 237.
Just after New Zealand reached 500, Fleming went to 250 in dramatic fashion, when he hit a Ntini delivery high in the air. Nicky Boje took a brilliant catch at deep square leg, but overbalanced and fell over the boundary rope, giving Fleming the second six of his innings.
He had been at the crease for just more than nine hours, and had faced 399 balls. His 250 included 30 fours and two sixes.
The umpires offered New Zealand the light at about 4.30pm, but the two batsmen were seeing the ball like a football, and turned the offer down, although it was gloomier than when Fleming and Vettori accepted the light on Thursday.
When Fleming’s wicket finally fell, the umpires offered the light to the fielding side, who accepted it gratefully. Franklin was likely to have a nervous night — when the players left the field, he was not out on 93, seven runs short of what would be his maiden century.
”It was very disappointing — we toiled very hard for very little result,” said South African coach Mickey Arthur. ”But the guys gave it an honest effort. Once again, we were bearing the brunt of a dropped catch.
”We will just have to try to bat as long as we can,” he added. ”We’ll be batting to save the game, not to win it. I think they’ll bat for a while tomorrow [Saturday] morning, probably to let Franklin try to reach his 100. We’ll have to try to see off the new ball, and then get as many runs as we can.”
Arthur defended the decision to send New Zealand in to bat. ”We knew the first session would be key, and we wanted to get as many wickets then as we could. We created opportunities — the ball often beat the bat, but we missed out on the wickets.”
When he spoke to the media, Franklin was obviously delighted with his performance, but said there was still work to be done.
”We’ll probably bat on in the morning, but still leave ourselves time to bowl them out twice,” he said. ”We have quite a decent attack, and a world-class spinner, and we have three days left in the Test, so hopefully we’ll be able to do the job.” — Sapa