NZ vs SA Man of the Series today: Who was awarded Man of the Series in New Zealand vs South Africa Test series?

NZ vs SA Man of the Series: A fast bowler from the home team has won the series award for the first time in his career.

During the fifth day of the second Test of the ongoing South Africa’s tour of New Zealand in Christchurch, South Africa beat New Zealand by 198 runs to draw level the two-match series 1-1.

In what is South Africa’s 25th biggest Test victory (by margin of runs), it is their biggest in New Zealand and sixth biggest away from home. A drawn series between these two nations means that New Zealand continue to be without a Test series victory against South Africa in spite of playing 17 series against them.

Chasing a 426-run target, New Zealand needing 332 runs with just six wickets in hand on a Day 5 pitch was always to be a daunting task.

Batter Devon Conway (92) and wicket-keeper batter Tom Blundell (44) did start the day on an affirmative note putting together an 85-run partnership for the fifth wicket. However, New Zealand required a lot more out of their lower order to seal this chase than bundling out for 227 in 93.5 overs.

South Africa spearhead Kagiso Rabada, who had made early inroads into the opposition’s batting lineup by sending back opening batters Will Young (0) and Tom Latham (1) on Day 4 itself, was the pick of their bowlers with bowling figures of 19-5-46-3.

While Rabada’s new-ball partner Marco Jansen also picked three wickets, spinner Keshav Maharaj was instrumental in dismissing Henry Nicholls (7) and Daryl Mitchell (24) yesterday to follow it with picking the last wicket of Matt Henry (0) in the third session today.

NZ vs SA Man of the Series today

Playing his 16th Test match despite a seven-year old Test career, New Zealand fast bowler Matt Henry bagged the Man of the Series award for the first time in his career by virtue of being the highest wicket-taker.

Readers must note that Henry’s 14 wickets in two Tests came at an average of 16.14, an economy rate of 2.65 and a strike rate of 36.4. The 30-year old player outperformed other participants namely Kagiso Rabada (10), Neil Wagner (9), Tim Southee (9) and Marco Jansen (9) by a healthy margin.

“I think I had hopes coming into this game but South Africa came back very strong. It was in the balance right throughout. But South Africa continued to get those partnerships. You got to be taking wickets, asking questions in order to win a Test match. You got to take 20 wickets,” Henry told Spark Sport during the post-match presentation ceremony.