New Zealand won the Hamilton Test against South Africa by 7 wickets on Friday. With this game, the two-match Test series also became New Zealand’s name. This is the first time in cricket history that the New Zealand team has defeated the Proteas in a Test series.
The first Test series was played in 1932 between New Zealand and South Africa. South Africa then won the two-match Test series 2-0. Since then, in the last 92 years, New Zealand have not lost even one of the 18 Test series. Four Test series were drawn during this period and South Africa won 14 series. Now it is the first time that the Kiwi team has won.
The main contributors to New Zealand’s historic victory were Kane Williamson in batting and William O’Rourke in bowling. While Kane Williamson scored 403 runs in 4 innings of these two Test matches, O’Rourke broke the Proteas’ back by taking 9 wickets in just one game. O’Rourke showed this strong performance in the second and final test of the series. Because of this performance, he also received the Player of the Match award.
New Zealand won the first game of this series by 281 runs. In the second game, this team won by 7 wickets. In the second match in Hamilton, South Africa had given New Zealand a target of 267 runs, which New Zealand achieved by losing three wickets. In pursuit of the target, New Zealand lost three wickets for 117 runs. From here, Kane Williamson formed an unbeaten 152-match partnership with Will Young and led the New Zealand team to victory. Kane Williamson played an unbeaten innings of 133 runs.