South Africa gained upper hand through lower-order partnerships – Latham by Cricbuzz Staff • Last updated on ShareTweet The series was shared 1-1 following South Africa’s crushing win in the second Test. © Getty
The series was shared 1-1 following South Africa’s crushing win in the second Test. © Getty After South Africa levelled the two-match Test series against New Zealand with a resounding win in the second Test at Hagley Oval, Tom Latham said that the visitors’ fine performance with the bat in the second innings on Day 4 proved to be the difference between the two sides.
On the back of Kyle Verreynne’s maiden Test hundred and useful contributions from Kagiso Rabada and Wiaan Mulder, South Africa added 214 runs on Day 4 to set a massive target of 426.
“From 1-0 to here is quite disappointing on our front,” the New Zealand skipper said. “We knew coming in that we had to front up again and we knew South Africa were going to bring their best. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to stick with them for long enough [on day four] and get those breakthroughs. They were able to put a good score and then coming into our second innings, we couldn’t build partnerships, especially among our top four.
“I think there were times throughout the Test match where momentum shifted from team to team. We were able to stay with South Africa for long periods but they managed to get their heads in front yesterday with lower-order partnerships. From a batting point of view, we were unable to do that. If we were able to do that, things might have looked different. Both in the first and second innings,” he added.
The Hagley Oval track also offered a bit of assistance for the spinners in the second innings with South Africa’s left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj taking three wickets. Latham, however, didn’t feel the home team made a mistake by not picking a spinner.
“I don’t think we missed a spinner. Regardless of what side we put on, we have a way we like to go about things. Even though the wicket was slightly flatter, there wasn’t a huge amount of turn and we certainly thought we had a team that was good enough to win.
“Certainly happy with the side we have. We have full belief in the side we have and the XI we put out. From a batting point of view, in New Zealand, some surfaces – sometimes it is not easy, sometimes it is not your day, and I think we’ve shown over long periods of time that we can be successful on these wickets. We had a couple of guys missing who will come back to the squad and then we will reassess.”
New Zealand would have hoped to win each of the four Test matches in the summer. However, they lost a Test against Bangladesh followed by today’s defeat at Hagley Oval. New Zealand also lost a Test series in India and now sit at the sixth position on the ICC World Championship points table. They are next scheduled to tour England and Pakistan, besides playing a home series versus Sri Lanka.
“As a whole, we had four Test matches in New Zealand and wanted to win them all, and unfortunately we weren’t able to do that. We played some good cricket in between and there were couple of games where we didn’t quite play our best. We’ve got three Tests in England as our next tour and the goal there will be to win three Tests over there. From an England point of view, we played a couple of Tests over there last year [including the WTC final against India], so conditions are familiar.
“Obviously you set out to win every Test at home. When we head to England, it will be important we shift our focus to that and win that series over there. Whatever Test it is, whether the first of a championship cycle or the last one, you always set out with the ambition of winning. So we now focus on the next Test match.”
