After a dreadful day that saw the Proteas all out for 95 at tea, with the Black Caps reaching the close on 116/3 in the first test at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Thursday, pace bowler Duanne Olivier believes that the visitors are still in the game.
They will come out on day two needing quick wickets to try limit New Zealand to as low a total as possible if they want to stand any chance of getting a win.
“Tomorrow’s a new day and things can change quickly, especially on a wicket like this. There is a little bit of assistance for the bowlers and it’s just about sticking to our game plan and keeping it simple,” explained Olivier.
“So I think we come back tomorrow, we know what we did wrong and we know where we can improve.
“At the end of the day there were still some positives and if we can take those and stick to our strengths and the way we play I think we can get ourselves into a good position.”
Matt Henry was the star for the hosts on day one, claiming career best figures of 7/23 and Olivier believes there is a lot that the South African bowling attack can learn from his performance.
“He swung the ball a little bit and brought it back nicely, so fair play to him he bowled really well, he made our batters play and I think from us as a bowling unit we can learn from that and take that forward tomorrow,” said Olivier.
“I think tomorrow we have seven more wickets to get, so we need to stick to the basics, keep it really simple and try not to complicate things.”
For Henry he was absolutely thrilled with his effort and the performance of the team as a whole, admitting he worked well with fellow quick Kyle Jamieson and claimed that winning the toss was important.
“When you win a toss like that you want to get out there and do the job, but we knew we still had to put the ball in the right areas, so it came off for us,” said Henry.
“When you come here and play a quality opposition like South Africa it’s something you have to do from both ends, I was the beneficiary of the wickets today but Kyle and I bowled really well together.”
Henry is not a regular in the New Zealand team, often being a part of the squad but has not received much game time over the past few years with Trent Boult and Tim Southee preferred, however with Boult on paternity leave it opened the door for him to come in and put in a big performance.
“I found out I was playing yesterday, but I have been playing a lot of cricket domestically and have been involved in the squad for a while now too,” explained Henry.
“So it was great to get the nod and obviously playing here at my home ground of Hagley, I was really excited to have my friends and family here too.”