CHRISTCHURCH, Feb 28: Kyle Verreyne stepped boldly into the vacancy left by the sudden retirement of Quintin de Kock with a maiden century on Monday which put South Africa in total control of the second Test against New Zealand by the end of the fourth day.
Verreyne’s unbeaten 136 allowed South Africa to declare its second innings at 354/9 just before tea, setting New Zealand 425 to win in about 136 overs or four sessions.
Kagiso Rabada, who supported Verreyne with a career-best innings of 47 from only 34 balls, then dismissed both New Zealand openers to leave the home side in a desperate position at 9/2.
An unbeaten 60 by South Africa-born Devon Conway lifted New Zealand to 94/4 at stumps, leaving it still 332 runs behind and with only six wickets to survive the final day. Tom Blundell was with Conway at the close of play, scoreless after 17 balls.
Blundell technically is New Zealand’s last specialist batsman. Still to come is the all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme, a century-maker in the first innings, then the bowlers.
New Zealand needed only to draw the second Test of the two-match to achieve its first series win over South Africa in 17 attempts over 19 years. But they saw their hopes of that historic achievement dissolve on Monday in the face of Verreyne’s magnificent innings.
New Zealand’s bowlers had been worn down by Verreyne and Rabada compounded their misery as he helped make South Africa’s lead impregnable.
When South Africa finally declared after exactly 100 overs in their second innings, the home team faced the prospect of having to achieve a world-record fourth innings run chase in order to win.
The previous highest winning fourth-innings total was the West Indies’ 418 against Australia in 2003. (AP)
Brief Scores: SA 364 and 425/9d (K Verreynne 136*, K Rabada 47; M Henry 2/81); NZ 293 and 94/4 (D Conway 60*; K Rabada 2/17).
