CricketSo Close Yet Too Far, New Zealand In Making History Against South Africa
Post image
The test series between New Zealand and South Africa was memorable for a number of reasons. Also, it was on verge of becoming a historic one but South Africa had other plans.

In the first match, New Zealand defeated New Zealand by 238 runs. It looked like the visitors were taken aback. The whole match went past them like a fleet and they couldn’t even respond firmly.

New Zealand was hopeful for the second match. Hopeful to defeat South Africa in a Test series. Both teams have played 17 test series against each other beginning in 1932 with the victory of South Africa in the first-ever series.

New Zealand has never managed to win a test series against South Africa. After the first match of the 2021-22 series, New Zealand was in high spirits to rewrite a new page in the history books. Probably, the cricketing world fell for it because of the way they outperformed South Africa in the first match.

However, it didn’t go their way. Even in the previous series, in a few instances, South Africa always found a way to make a draw better than a loss. The last time New Zealand came anywhere near to winning the series was in the 2003/04 test series.

New Zealand won the first match and South Africa registered victory in the second. In the third match, New Zealand was ahead but Jacques Kallis made a significant contribution of 150 runs and the match ended in a draw as did the series.

Since that series, South Africa always came out as series winners until the previous series which ended in a draw. That means, after 19 years, New Zealand managed to get away without facing a defeat in a Test series against South Africa.

In the fourth innings of the 2nd test match, New Zealand required 426 runs to win the match thus the series. The highest ever chase in the history of Test cricket by 418 runs. This score was chased by West Indies against Australia in the year 2003.

If we only talk about New Zealand’s run chase, then they have chased 324 runs, which is the highest score ever in the fourth innings. In this sense, a win for New Zealand in the second Test against South Africa seems far-fetched.