SA vs NZ, 2nd Test, Day 2: New Zealand Bowls out for 211, South Africa leads by 31

On Wednesday, the second day of the second Test, South Africa unexpectedly established an early lead in the first innings after bowling out New Zealand for 211 thanks to a career-best 5-89 from Dane Piedt.

After starting Day 2 at 220-6, South Africa was bowled out for 242, and New Zealand gave up a 31-run advantage as bowlers dominated and claimed 14 wickets for the day. The score was 183-9 for New Zealand, and if it weren’t for the outstanding Neil Wagner’s 33-run final innings, the deficit could have been higher.

Piedt’s Test career reached its pinnacle when he took wickets of Glenn Phillips, Will Young, Kane Williamson, and Tom Latham, highlighting a superb bowling effort by the Proteas. In the opening over of the New Zealand innings, Dane Paterson claimed the wicket of Devon Conway (0) and concluded with a 3-39 score.

Piedt remarked, “I’m extremely proud of the way we fought today. My Test career has been ups and downs with injuries.” “I’m glad everyone stood up today and put something forward for the public. We had a nice talk out in the middle, reflecting on the first Test, which New Zealand won by 281 runs.”

On a day of patchy bounce at Seddon Park, four batters—two from each team—were out bowled off an inside edge, while another was caught behind off an inside edge onto the pad. The opening day’s action revealed that the normally seamer-friendly wicket wasn’t playing up to standard as part-time spinner Rachin Ravindra bowled 21 overs for New Zealand.

During the middle session, off-spinner Piedt showed his true abilities as the ball took a strong turn and he asked questions that even the most skilled batsmen in New Zealand were unable to answer.

In 2014, the 33-year-old made his Test debut against Zimbabwe. Over the next two years, he participated in six more Test matches. After being dropped from the team, he was called up for two Test matches against India in 2019, however he only managed two wickets in those matches. When Piedt got his most recent recall for the current series, he started to consider switching to the American side.

In what is turning out to be a remarkable display of batting resilience, Ruan de Swardt, in his second Test, and Shaun von Berg, making his debut at 37, shared an unbroken partnership of 70 for South Africa’s seventh wicket before stumps on Day 1.

Their disobedience on the second morning was short-lived. After achieving his first Test half century on Tuesday, de Swardt was out for 64 shortly after von Berg was out for 38 in the third over of the day.
Will O’Rourke’s balls were sliced back onto the stumps of de Swardt and von Berg. In addition, O’Rourke claimed the final two wickets of the innings with successive balls, concluding his Test debut with a 4-59 score.

Piedt scored four runs, and the final three wickets fell for eight runs as South Africa’s innings collapsed.

Conway resumed a run of bad form and was out to the fourth ball of the innings, giving New Zealand an early taste of what it was like to struggle to bat on a surface that was livelier on the second day than the first.
Paterson slanted a ball around the wicket into Conway; it straightened late, caught the edge, and went to Clyde Fortuin, the wicketkeeper. Conway has now gone over a year and seven innings without a Test fifty.

Latham and Williamson, in a stand of 74 for the second wicket, steadied the innings, but scoring was hard and they had to be alert all the time. So far in the Test, neither team has scored more than three runs per over.

Piedt bowled Latham for forty runs after he pushed forward to a ball that turned beyond the outside edge and struck off stump.
Raynard van Tonder was at short leg when Williamson, then forty-three, received a ball from Piedt that rebounded abruptly off the inside edge, onto the thigh pad.

Piedt remarked, “I believe we discussed bowling in pairs and just trying to strangle them as a bowling unit.” Williamson and Latham “are two extremely good players and they do fight through those difficult times.”

“We told him to keep working hard and good fortune would come our way, and happily it did.”
After making 29, Rachin Ravindra tugged a ball from Tshepo Moreki back onto his stumps. Tom Blundell also fell, realizing too late that he should have left a ball from Paterson that bounced more than he had anticipated.

At thirty-six, Will Young lost against Piedt, holing out to de Swardt at long range. Wagner’s late intervention might be crucial in a game with narrow margins.