Cricket: Smith says tentative NZ blew chance

CAPE TOWN - South Africa cricket captain Graeme Smith has wasted no time questioning New Zealand's second-test tactics, claiming the tourists had a responsibility to show more initiative at Newlands if they wanted to keep the series alive.

New Zealand arrived in Johannesburg last night to start preparations for the final showdown at the Wanderers, knowing their chances of creating history had disappeared, and that the only remaining consolation was to square the series.

The anti-climactic prognosis was delivered after Stephen Fleming's side made all the early running at Newlands, but seemed reluctant to risk all in the pursuit of a genuine series-winning chance.

In particular, Fleming's decision to continue batting on the morning of the third day, when New Zealand were 535 for eight overnight, appeared to perplex his counterpart.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't surprised that they batted on for so long," Smith said yesterday.

"Especially the way the game was going in terms of time being lost; dew in the morning, poor light in the late afternoon. Time was a precious commodity at this time of year, we all knew we were going to lose a lot of overs.

"We were surprised. There were times when we thought we'd be batting and they carried on for two or three hours longer than that. We were walking past each other in the field saying, 'Let's hope they keep going', because every extra over just took more pressure off us."

Smith contended that his decision to bowl first demonstrated how keen his side were in terms of pushing for a result, but said that he wasn't so naive as to offer New Zealand a chance to win, without having any great hope of winning himself.

New Zealand and South Africa have been crossing swords since 1932 but New Zealand still haven't clinched a series.

"We contemplated declaring behind, but we also felt that they should have contemplated declaring a little earlier, given we were in the box-seat in terms of the series," Smith said.

Having been whitewashed by Australia, South Africa were determined to take something out of the season and were not interested in offering New Zealand a chance to win in exchange for nothing.

For his part, Fleming dismissed Smith's version, saying that if he had his time over again he would have batted for longer, and made the follow-on target even steeper.

"I needed everything I could get, probably more," said Fleming.

"Maybe if we'd been bowled out for 350 the game would have still been alive, but we batted well enough to get ourselves in a position to bowl South Africa out twice.

"When you commit to that you've got to get enough cash in the bank, and as it turned out, 30 minutes more of Patel and Franklin may have made a difference."