MCKENZIE'S 120 BRINGS SECOND TEST TO LIGHT

After nearly two days of grim, attritional cricket, McKenzie’s 120 came as a breath of fresh, lifting the home side to 361 for eight after New Zealand had looked to be taking a grip on the game. The lead at stumps on Saturday was 63 and with New Zealand needing to win to square the series, South Africa were in a position to wait for the touring team to make mistakes.

The 25-year-old McKenzie played three Test in Sri Lanka as an opening batsman in the middle of the year, but he is now being used in his more natural position in the middle order – and quite clearly enjoying it.

In all he batted for 273 minutes, driving and pulling powerfully to reach the boundary 20 times. He was the senior partner in a 136-run eighth wicket partnership with Nicky Boje that lifted South Africa from a precarious 209 for seven to 345 for eight and a lead on the first innings.

The end of McKenzie’s innings came tamely, though, when he tapped up a catch off the toe of his bat to Craig Spearman at short cover off Craig McMillan.

Boje was content to let McKenzie make most of the running, but his contribution was equally important to South Africa. He reached his 50 with a single off Brooke Walker in the penultimate over of the day after batting for 218 minutes.

And he was still there at the close on 51 with Allan Donald on 9.

MCKENZIE WRESTS THE INITIATIVE BACK FOR SOUTH AFRICA

McKenzie, who made 55 in the first Test at Bloemfontein, was not out on 76 at the interval after sharing an unbroken 77-run partnership for the eighth wicket with Nicky Boje in comfortably the most enterprising batting of the innings. At tea South Africa were 286 for seven with Boje on 31.

Where McKenzie’s senior colleagues up the order had prodded and pushed, McKenzie came into his own after lunch with a succession of sweetly timed pulls and drives as the initiative was wrested away from New Zealand for the first time in two days.

The tourists had made another breakthrough in the third over after lunch when Lance Klusener drove at a wide one from Chris Martin and was caught by Adam Parore leaping in front of first slip. Klusener did not add to his lunchtime score of 6 and the seventh South African wicket had fallen at 209, still 89 short of New Zealand’s 298.

But both McKenzie and Boje played positively to loosen New Zealand’s grip on the game. McKenzie went to his 50 with a single off Kerry Walmsley after batting for 128 minutes, but in the same over Walmsley had a confident appeal for LBW against Boje turned down by umpire Rudi Koertzen. Television replays showed that Koertzen had given a very good decision with the ball pitching fractionally outside leg stump.

On 53 McKenzie played the first false shot of his innings when a top edge from a pull off Walmsley flew just over Parore for four, but if the batsman was rattled by the escape he did not show it, driving the next ball beautifully through extra cover for four.

He hit Brooke Walker out of the attack with two pulls for four in the legspinner’s 17th over but the replacement, Nathan Astle, almost had Boje for 23 when a low edge slipped through the legs of Stephen Fleming at first slip.

NEW ZEALAND BREAK THROUGH BEFORE LUNCH

Until New Zealand took the second new ball after 80 overs, the tourists almost exclusively employed an attack comprised of gentle medium pace and leg spin and with the pitch playing lower and slower, there were long periods when the game scarcely seemed to move.

The new ball brought immediate reward for New Zealand with Chris Martin and Shayne O’Connor each grabbing a quick wicket. The last 15 minutes of the session clearly belonged to the tourists with South Africa now fighting to avoid falling too far behind New Zealand’s 298 in their first innings.

There had been some excitement early in the morning when Daryll Cullinan climbed into Chris Martin’s attempts to bounce him out. Martin was given just two overs at the start of play and when he dropped it short three times in his second over, Cullinan pulled him savagely twice for four and then produced a hook just backward of square that left the man positioned on the boundary flatfooted.

Martin was yanked quickly out of the attack to be replaced by Brooke Walker and Cullinan greeted the legspinner by hitting him straight for six. Walker had his revenge, though, in the 14th over of the morning when Cullinan swiped inelegantly across the line and was bowled for 33 at 151 for four.

Neil McKenzie joined Shaun Pollock and with the South Africa pair treating Nathan Astle’s dobbers with exaggerated caution, New Zealand pegged the run rate back. Astle’s spell consisted of 14 overs for 19 runs while Craig McMillan bowled five overs for just a single before the new ball became due.

Pollock drove Martin’s first delivery with the new ball for four, but was then caught at third slip off the third ball for 33 at 181 for four and Mark Boucher was bowled for 0 between bat and pad by O’Connor at 184 for five.

McKenzie picked up boundaries off Martin with a drive and a pull in the penultimate over before lunch and Lance Klusener smashed the last ball of the session from O’Connor through the covers for four. McKenzie had 20 at the break with Klusener on 6.

© CricInfo

Date-stamped : 02 Dec2000 - 22:23