South Africa won the toss and decided to bowl against New Zealand
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Colin de Grandhomme returns to the New Zealand side in place of Mitchell Santner © Getty Images
South Africa’s luck with the coin on this tour continued as Faf du Plessis won the toss and opted to bowl on a sunny, calm Wellington day.
They named an unchanged XI, resisting the temptation to strengthen the pace attack, and du Plessis said he thought there could be some swing early on with the temperature having lifted a little.
New Zealand have made three changes from Dunedin. Two of them were known in advance – Neil Broom making his debut for the injured Ross Taylor and Tim Southee returning for Trent Boult – while Mitchell Santner has also lost his place to Colin de Grandhomme. Jeetan Patel is retained as the specialist spinner while de Grandhomme’s batting has edged out Matt Henry.
“We would have bowled as well,” Kane Williamson said, “but it’s normally a pretty good wicket. It’s important to bat deep and Colin can also nibble it around.”
South Africa have four victories from their six Tests at the Basin Reserve. Five years ago here Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel both took six-wicket hauls.
New Zealand 1 Tom Latham, 2 Jeet Raval, 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Neil Broom, 5 Henry Nicholls, 6 James Neesham, 7 BJ Watling (wk), 8 Colin de Grandhomme, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Neil Wagner, 11 Jeetan Patel
South Africa 1 Stephen Cook, 2 Dean Elgar, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Faf du Plessis (capt), 5 JP Duminy, 6 Temba Bavuma, 7 Quinton de Kock (wk), 8 Vernon Philander, 9 Keshav Maharaj, 10 Morne Morkel, 11 Kagiso Rabada
Andrew McGlashan is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo