Gary Kirsten, who supported South African cricket in the trying years of its return to test play, drew stumps on a distinguished career yesterday with a final test win and a tied series against New Zealand.
Kirsten, 36, made 1 and 76 in the last of his 101 test matches, sharing a 171-run partnership with Graeme Smith in his 176th innings. He retired with 7,289 test runs and an average of 45.27.
His emotional final stand lifted South Africa to a six-wicket win, squaring the three-match series and allowing Kirsten to step aside on a career high.
Smith, 23, supplanted Kirsten in the South African batting order two years ago, forcing him from his usual opening role to a new and comfortable station in its strengthened middle order.
Their partnership yesterday had iconic significance because as much as Kirsten represents the past of South African cricket, Smith represents its future.
Kirsten made his first test appearance against Australia at Melbourne in 1993 a year after its exile from test cricket ended with the abolition of apartheid.
For many years afterwards he served as the bulwark of its batting, achieving 21 centuries and 33 half centuries.
He counted his last appearance and his final innings among his best.
South Africa reached its winning target of 234 fewer than 30 minutes after lunch Tuesday, posting its 16th win in 30 tests against New Zealand, remaining the only test nation never to have lost a series to the Kiwis.
New Zealand led the series 1-0 after winning the second test at Auckland by nine wickets, after the first test at Hamilton was drawn, needing only a draw to win the series. Its Auckland win was only its fourth over South Africa, its first at home, and a series win would have plugged a 72-year gap in its test resume.
The match, which had tipped one way then another with every session over four days, hung in a precarious balance at the start of the final day. South Africa resumed at 82-2, still needing 152 to win while New Zealand needed a less likely seven wickets to save the series.
Smith, 125 not out, and Kirsten gave South Africa the match. They played New Zealand beyond any prospect of victory when they stuck together grimly for all but one ball of the extended first session.
When Kirsten was out for 76, lbw to Scott Styris, he had batted 227 minutes and shared a partnership with Smith which was a fourth-wicket record for South Africa against New Zealand.
His half century was his 33rd in test matches and he left South Africa at 207-4, within 27 runs of its fourth-highest winning total in tests. Sri Lankan umpire Asoka de Silva, standing in the last of his 30 test matches, signaled the end of over Kirsten's career when he upheld New Zealand's appeal in the 66th over.
The slight left-handed Kirsten, suddenly tearful, left the field to the warm ovation of a small crowd at the Basin Reserve, passing into the pavilion through an honor guard of his teammates.
"I always knew it was going to be an emotional day," Kirsten said. "This is pretty much the highlight of my career. Just to be able to get a partnership and bat with Smithy and to win a test under pressure was great. It's pretty satisfying."
Pakistan versus India
India got the early breakthroughs before captain Inzamam-ul-Haq led Pakistan's fightback on the third day of the first cricket test yesterday.
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