Rachin Ravindra, 24, finished with an incredible 240 from 366 balls, making it his first three-figure total in Test cricket history. As they reached 511 before being bowled out, New Zealand began their attempt to bury an inexperienced South Africa under a pile of runs. South Africa responded by stumbling to 80 for 4 at stumps.
After being forced to work hard by the Williamson-Ravindra combo, South Africa had a new start on Day 2 and made significant progress early on. Williamson attempted an unusual hoick across the line, but Tshepo Moreki grabbed him mid-on. Ruan de Swardt, who had lost out twice on Day 1 to dropped catches, finally got his first wicket in a Test.
But that didn’t alter the game’s direction since Daryl Mitchell joined Ravindra and scored 103 runs in 25.4 overs. Over the course of the day, Ravindra played with great fluency, hitting 26 fours and 3 sixes in his knock. In order to keep South Africa on their toes when they were picking wickets, he switched between alliances.
Following their partnership of 82 runs for the sixth wicket with Glenn Phillips, Ravindra and Mitchell shared the fourth wicket. Ravindra was out of the game shortly after, trying to pull off a short ball off South Africa captain Neil Brand. He was greeted with a standing ovation from his teammates in the pavilion and shook hands with the opposition players. Then came Matt Henry, who came and swung for the fences, scoring 27 off 9 balls, including three sixes and four fours. He helped New Zealand surpass the 500-run threshold in the process. In his debut, Brand finished with six wickets.
When New Zealand’s bowlers entered the field and systematically destroyed South Africa’s top order, they solidified their hold on the match. The first wicket came from Brand, who was trying to leave a delivery from Kyle Jamieson and nicked it behind to Blundell but was unable to move his bat entirely out of the way in time. Later in the same over, Raynard van Tonder was leg before two balls trapped. Edward Moore’s brief but attentive visit was cut short by Henry with a bouncer that the batter clumsily defended against. As the ball shot upwards, Devon Conway made a terrific catch at cover point.
The fourth player to go down was Zubayr Hamza, who, like Ravindra, was trying to take on the spinner, in this case Mitchell Santner. South Africa trailed 431 runs at the end of the fourth day.
Brief Scores: New Zealand 511 (Rachin Ravindra 240, Kane Williamson 118; Neil Brand 6-119) lead South Africa 80/4 (David Bedingham 29*; Kyle Jamieson 2-21) by 431 runs
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