South Africa 129-7 and trails New Zealand by 382 at lunch on day 3 of the 1st test

South Africa found itself in a perilous fight to avoid the follow-on Tuesday early on the third day of the first cricket test against New Zealand.

Resuming at 80-4, South Africa lost two wickets in the same over bowled by Matt Henry and at lunch was 129-7, still 382 runs behind New Zealand’s first innings of 511. Keegan Petersen was 33 and Duanne Olivier had yet to score.

David Bedingham resumed on 29 after playing a solid rear-guard role late on the second day. He was the first batter to fall Tuesday for 32, playing an uncharacteristic slash across the line and skying a ball to Mitchell Santner running at mid-off.

Two balls later Ruan de Swardt fell lbw to Henry without scoring. The ball struck the top of de Swardt’s front pad outside the line of off stump and the umpire rejected Henry’s appeal. But de Swardt did not offer a shot and the television replay showed the ball just clipping off stump.

Wicketkeeper Clyde Fortuin took 17 balls to get off the mark. He was nine when he came down the pitch to a shorter ball from Santer and hit his lofted drive directly to Tim Southee at cover.

The pitch at Bay Oval didn’t offer a lot of assistance to New Zealand’s three seam bowlers but by bowling straight and wicket wicket the seamers brought lbw into play and restricted South Africa’s scoring options.

Left-arm spinner Santner found some turn in the morning session and just before lunch was bowling in tandem with part-time spinner Rachin Ravindra, who made 240 during the New Zealand innings.

The pitch is unlikely to deteriorate but South Africa still faces an uphill battle to reach 311 to avoid the follow-on.

The difficulty in scoring is reflected by the fact 21 of the 56 overs New Zealand had bowled by lunch were maidens. Petersen, usually an aggressive middle order batter, had faced 104 balls for his 33 runs.