KEY POINTS:
JOHANNESBERG - Defeat, and a massive one at that, came quickly for New Zealand in the first cricket test at the Wanderers overnight as they succumbed by 358 runs to South Africa nine overs soon after lunch on the fourth day.
Fast bowler Dale Steyn once again produced the telling performance, taking five for 59 as New Zealand finished on 172 for nine, with fast bowler Shane Bond unable to bat due to an abdominal tear.
Steyn had taken five for 34 in New Zealand's dismal first innings of 118 for career-best match figures of 10 for 93.
New Zealand's cause was lost when they resumed today on 57 for three, confronting a distant target of 531.
Steyn got down to business immediately, striking with his third ball of the day as Scott Styris, on 16, gloved a lifter down the leg side.
The other overnight batsman, Brendon McCullum, survived a battering for over an hour, scoring 26 before he could not get over a sharp lifter from Steyn and steered a catch to gully.
The virus-stricken Michael Papps made five before edging the first ball Jacques Kallis bowled to the slips and the tourists limped to lunch on 148 for six.
The end came 45 minutes after lunch with Steyn once again providing the killer blows and completing his first 10-wicket haul in tests after a wonderful display of fast bowling.
Spinner Paul Harris chipped in with the wicket of Jacob Oram in the fourth over of the second session as the big left-hander's lofted drive landed safely in the hands of Andre Nel at a deep wide mid on.
Oram scored 40 in over two hours at the crease but any hopes of New Zealand delaying their humiliation disappeared with his departure.
Iain O'Brien survived one slower ball from Steyn when the bowler seemed as flummoxed as the batsman and dropped a simple return catch, before flicking another one to short leg where Hashim Amla, showing great reflexes, pulled off one of the better catches of the test.
The wicket of Chris Martin for a duck soon followed and captain Daniel Vettori, who finished on 46 not out, was obviously crestfallen after the match.
"I am extremely disappointed," he said.
"It's not where you want to be in your first test as captain."
Vettori blamed the first-innings batting performance, when New Zealand were dismissed out in the 42nd over, for the defeat.
"The first batting performance was where the match went wrong for us.
"We had started well (dismissing South Africa for 226) and after Shane Bond and Chris Martin had bowled the opposition out on the first day, we were well placed in the match, where we wanted to be," Vettori said.
Fast bowler Kyle Mills and batsman Jamie How are on their way to South Africa to cover for Bond and Oram, who has a strained hamstring, but Vettori was unsure whether they would be "up to speed in time" for the second test, which starts in Centurion on Friday.
SCOREBOARD
South Africa
First innings 226
Second innings 422-3 decl.
New Zealand
First innings 118
Second innings (overnight 57-3)
C Cumming c Smith b Steyn 7
S Fleming c Smith b Nel 17
S Styris c Boucher b Steyn 16
R Taylor c Kallis b Nel 4
B McCullum c Gibbs b Steyn 26
J Oram c Nel b Harris 40
M Papps c de Villiers b Kallis 5
D Vettori not out 46
I O'Brien c Amla b Steyn 0
C Martin b Steyn 0
Extras (7b, 2w, 1lb, 1nb) 11
Total (for 9 wkts, 51 overs) 172
(Did not bat due to injury: S Bond.)
Fall: 12 (Cumming), 34 (Fleming), 39 (Taylor), 60 (Styris), 90 (McCullum), 109 (Papps), 154 (Oram), 170 (O'Brien), 172 (Martin).
Bowling: D Steyn 17-1-59-5 (1nb), M Ntini 13-0-42-0, A Nel 12-1-37-2 (2w), J Kallis 3-0-15-1, P Harris 6-2-11-1.
The second test starts at Centurion Park on Friday.
- NZPA
