They went to lunch on day two leading by 140 with six wickets in hand
Lunch New Zealand 235 for 4 (Nicholls 86*, Mitchell 14*) lead South Africa 95 by 140 runs
New Zealand added 119 runs for the loss of only one wicket to increase their lead to 140 on the second morning. Henry Nicholls is 14 runs away from an eighth Test hundred but Neil Wagner fell one short of what could have been a second Test half-century.
South Africa were lethargic on the second morning and lacked clear plans. With inexperience running through the four-man attack, they were forced to rely heavily on strike bowler Kagiso Rabada, who has already sent down more overs than anyone else and will doubtless need to continue doing that with the second new ball due post-lunch. South Africa also don’t have a spinner to turn to and failed to control the run-rate or create chances. New Zealand scored at a rate of 4.4 to the over.
Wagner was the entertainer of the morning and hit seven fours and two sixes, all off Rabada and Glenton Stuurman. His fun started in the second over when he cut Rabada through point for successive fours, one off a no-ball, by transferring his weight perfectly onto the backfoot and flaying the ball through the unmanned region. Rabada adjusted to bowl the next ball full and Wagner missed the flick and was hit on the pad. South Africa reviewed but HawkEye showed the ball pitched just outside leg stump. If that was frustrating enough for Rabada, Wagner hit him for back-to-back boundaries in his next over too, one of which was also off a no-ball, and his fun did not stop there.
Stuurman was introduced in the seventh over of the morning and Wagner saw even more opportunity to score runs. He worked Stuurman’s second delivery off the hip to long leg, drove his third through the covers for four and then top-edged a hook off the penultimate ball of the over for six. That shot brought up the fifty-run stand between Nicholls and Wagner – New Zealand’s second of their innings. South Africa did not manage one partnership more than 33 runs.
Wagner’s display of batting ability continued when he drove Duanne Olivier straight down the ground for four and dispatched a Stuurman long-hop for six over backward square leg and he seemed set for fifty. But Olivier and Stuurman quietened things down, with no boundaries for three overs before Wagner picked out Rassie van der Dussen at deep square leg as he aimed to flick Rabada for six. He was disappointed at his error but he had more than done his job as nightwatchman.
By the time Wagner was dismissed, New Zealand had scored 81 runs off 86 balls in the morning and Nicholls was responsible for just 23. He continued to collect runs almost unnoticed, occasionally bringing out his signature strokes through point and in the third man region. He scored more than a third of his runs in that area – 31 – and South Africa’s failure to cut off that option should concern them. More so, their inability to create any opportunities to dismiss Nicholls was glaring, especially after he was dropped twice on the first afternoon, (on 5 by Zubayr Hamza at third slip, and on 24 by Temba Bavuma at point). Nicholls ended the first day on 37 and had a chanceless second morning which has set him up for a first century since January 2021.
Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo’s South Africa correspondent