Rain interrupts as McCullum, Taylor rebuild

Tea New Zealand 94 for 2 (McCullum 38*, Taylor 29*) v South Africa

Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor began to string together another promising partnership before the rain interrupted © AFP

Only ten overs were possible in the afternoon session before rain stopped ply in Hamilton, interrupting a promising partnership between Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor. The pair's last stand had given New Zealand hope of an unlikely win in Dunedin, and they resumed their association with similar confidence at Seddon Park, to take New Zealand to 94 for 2 at tea. South Africa had snared New Zealand's openers, but were unable to trouble the hosts' two most experienced batsmen, as the favourable bowling conditions both sides had anticipated failed to materialise beyond the first 40 minutes.

Groundsman Karl Johnson had invoked a wedding analogy to explain the greenness in the pitch three days ago, but as he had suggested, the Seddon Park surface that had threatened to be a bridezilla held few terrors for batsmen as three hours unfolded. Movement off the seam was modest to begin with and quickly gave out, with swing in the air also lasting only a few overs despite cloud cover overhead. Graeme Smith employed only two slips by the tenth over and though more catchers returned briefly towards the end of the first session, it was Morne Morkel's bounce, rather than significant movement, that prompted the change.

Taylor began after lunch with two commanding strokes down the ground off Vernon Philander, highlighting both his own form and also the trueness of the pitch, less than 30 overs into the match. McCullum had done the same when he climbed into a back foot punch in the previous session, and the pair were largely unflustered by a South African ploy to pepper them with short deliveries once it became clear all movement in the surface had been exhausted.

Dale Steyn returned with more pace following the break, and floored McCullum with a sharp bouncer, but the batsman stood firm thereafter - he blunted the bounce off the back foot when it rose to his chest, and picked singles through the sparse on-side field when Steyn pitched a tad fuller. Philander was also negotiated unfussily, with both batsmen picking straighter deliveries to score, as the bowler sought to attack the stumps once the lack of movement made his off-stump line less effective.

Taylor and McCullum were called on to rebuild, because New Zealand lost Martin Guptill and Rob Nicol in the previous session. Both openers were undone by technical deficiencies that had become apparent in the first Test. Nicol was once again dismissed by an away-seaming delivery from Philander, despite his efforts to counter the movement by shuffling forward and across the stumps, while Guptill, who had looked good for his 22, hung an angled bat well outside the off stump to drag Steyn back onto the wickets, in a repeat of his first-innings dismissal in Dunedin.