New Zealand carved into South Africa’s first innings 314 with half centuries for Jeet Raval and Tom Latham on a rain-shortened third morning of the third Test in Hamilton on Monday.
At lunch, with the morning session reduced to 90 minutes, New Zealand were 132 for one with Raval on 54 and Kane Williamson on 27.
Raval and Latham produced the best opening partnership by either side in the series so far with 83 before Latham went in the seventh over of the morning.
The previous best start was South Africa’s 18 in the second innings of the second Test which they won by eight wickets.
Latham, who struggled in the first two Tests, returned to form with his 13th Test fifty, reaching the milestone when he turned Morne Morkel to the fine leg boundary for the 10th four of his innings.
But he only faced another seven scoreless deliveries before getting an edge to a Morkel ball that angled in then straightened and Quinton de Kock dived to his left to take a one-handed catch.
It was a familiar dismissal for the left-hander whose four innings in the series have seen him caught twice by wicketkeeper de Kock, and once at third slip and once in the gully.
New Zealand resumed the day at 67 without loss with Raval and Latham putting on 16 before Morkel’s breakthrough, and Raval and Williamson added a further 49 to lunch.
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