South Africa Under-19 are in a very strong position to win their opening New Zealand tour match outright, with an 236-run lead heading into the third and final day.

Otago Under-19 were 21/0 overnight but soon found themselves in all sorts of trouble.

A wicket off the very first ball of the day saw a slide begin from 21/1 to 60/7, at one stage losing five wickets for a mere nine runs during the collapse.

Only Mark Joyce stood between the South Africans and the follow-on enforcement, putting on fine stands of 45, 27 and 25 for the final three wickets with Matt Adair, Ben Ryan and Jamie Murley. Number eight Joyce was last man out for 60.

It was very much the old cricket story of the tail wagging, and in this case the vigorously wagging bottom order reduced the first innings deficit to 123.

For South Africa Johan Botha had the incredible figures of 18 overs, 13 maidens, 10 runs, 6 wickets. He bowled very well and many of the Otago batsmen looked back in horror to see either stumps knocked out of the ground or catches spurting to the slip cordon. The poplars and silver birch trees may have watched in silence, but they couldn't fail to have been impressed by his performance, on a day he could rightly call his overseas debut.

Imran Khan, with figures of 18.2-4-62-2, came in for some punishment from Joyce, but otherwise bowled impressively with an unusual action that sees almost no use of his left arm.

Craig Thysen (1-21 from 12 overs), Gerhard de Bruin 0-33 from 15 overs) and Monde Zondeki (0-20 from 13 overs) all bowled economically, with Zondeki looking very fast on occasions.

The South African fielding overall was not as slick as Otago's had been the previous day, exerting far less pressure to boot. They will have plenty of work to be done to get into shape before next week's opening Youth Test against the New Zealand Under-19s.

South Africa commenced their second innings with a lead of 123 runs and the knowledge that Otago had to bat last on the pitch which has yet to deteriorate significantly.

James Schorn, who top scored with 94 in South Africa's first innings, looked in fine touch in his second visit to the crease. Together with captain Rivash Gobind he set about cementing his side's already strong situation.

Both batsmen played some classic shots that suggested they had the ability to be players of the future for South Africa. They negotiated the final period of play very well and saw their team reach 113/1 with Schorn 47 not out and Gobind unbeaten on 56 at the close.

© CricInfo