South Africa On Top After Day One

On a rain curtailed, start and stop sort of a day at Wellington, South Africa were comfortably placed at 136 for 2 against New Zealand after day one of the third test. Only 42 overs were possible in the day, as wet outfield at the start of the day and poor light prevented play for some period.

Put into bat by New Zealand skipper Ross Taylor, the prodigious movement as expected was absent for large part of the day. Though Graeme Smith fell early, having contributed only five runs, poor field settings by New Zealand allowed Hashim Amla to get off to an easy start. Amla went on to score 63 runs which were punctuated with 10 hits to the boundary. At the close of play, Alviro Peterson and JP Duminy were still at the crease having scored 44 and 23 runs respectively. The fast bowlers of New Zealand failed to looks threatening and Vettori had to bowl 11 overs on a first day wicket, in quest of a wicket.

South Africa is 1-0 up in the three match Test series, after first match ended in a draw and South Africa won the second test by nine wickets. New Zealand have everything to play for when they resume tomorrow.