Day 5 at Wellington: Wrapping Up

For those wondering I had a drink after the game with Kane, he even had me sign his broken box! Haha! See, us quicks ain't that bad...
- Dale Steyn on Twitter

Phew. Thank you Williamson and Bracewell for batting out the draw. We shouldn't really have allowed ourselves to be in the position, but it's a nice little end to a torrid summer.

Before I start gushing about Kane Williamson's innings I think a lot needs to be said for Morne Morkel. He had thus far bowled superbly in the series without many wickets to show for it, and today was payday. You could argue that he set it up yesterday by cracking Ross Taylor's hand and thus eliminating him from the match, but today he was simply fearsome. After taking it upon himself to snuff out the top three, those yorkers to get rid of Brownlie and Vettori - delivered from sky-high - must have reminded old timers of Joel Garner in his prime. And there was the brilliant return catch off Kruger van Wyk on a day when chances were being spilled routinely. From the point of view of someone who's been overshadowed by Steyn and Philander, it's a shame the spell wasn't a matchwinning one in the end.

As for Williamson's innings, the word epic comes to mind. It had a sort of unforgettable, heroic, feel to it because (by remaining not-out) he lived to tell the tale. Despite all the mistakes, he showed tremendous temperament to bat through. Remember that Ross Taylor was absent, McCullum and Vettori were both dismissed without scoring, and he was batting in the knowledge that only an injured Gillespie and Chris Martin remained at the end.

It was all extremely chancy at the start, given he should have been out five times on the way to 20. First he shrugged it off by eventually unleashing a few strokes, and taking a few blows along the way. Then came the final session, where in the company of van Wyk and later Bracewell he turned into the immovable object NZ had needed all along against the relentless SA pace attack. It was noticeable through the series that improvement in South Africa's bowlers (to unbelievable levels) slowly brought out the best in KW. May this be the prelude to many more.

(The incident which ensured the innings will be part of cricketing folklore was when Dale Steyn struck Williamson in the box, and said 'I know that hurt but I'm not going to apologise'. As someone on the forum commented: "he put his testicles on the line for his country - literally".)

The series wouldn't have been complete without Graeme Smith firing a parting shot at NZ. The heady feeling of achieving the draw was marred when Smith claimed he didn't declare earlier because "NZ didn't deserve anything more". Sure, South Africa were much the better side and NZ weren't in with a shot, they're respectively 2nd and 8th in the world after all. But you first make a declaration aimed at fully eliminating the risk of losing - to a weak batting side missing its best batsman? - and then you attribute it to your judgement of what you feel the opposition 'deserves'? Real classy, Graeme.

That aside, the South Africans were probably the best touring side in the country since the 2005 Aussies. The 1-0 scoreline may have flattered us, but still, both the draws were hard fought against a far superior opponent; it's a reasonable achievement in what was a very watchable series, though I felt NZ made things more difficult for themselves with some duff selections (Nicol, Arnel). My feeling is before it can think about winning consistently, the test side needs to learn how to stop losing. This series was a step in that direction.