When you play the best, glaring errors stand out: Williamson

Small run chases in the fourth innings, particularly at the end of a long day's play, tend to lend themselves towards introspection. With the outcome of the match generally a foregone conclusion, thoughts among the team which is about to lose wander to where things went wrong, but also to how they might be righted. So it was for New Zealand as they ambled towards an eight-wicket defeat on the third evening at the Basin Reserve on Saturday (March 18).

To begin with, there was the question of how it came to this. Just five sessions previously, New Zealand were all over South Africa, who found themselves on 94 for 6, still trailing in the first innings by 174 runs. All it took was one partnership between Quinton de Kock and Temba Bavuma to change the course of the match, and once the pressure had been transferred onto the home side, they found it too much to bear. "The frustrating part for us," Kane Williamson reflected, "is that when you are playing a side like South Africa and you have them under pressure, you need to keep them there. If you don't then they can change the shape of the match quite quickly. We let it slip very quickly and it went bad quickly as well."

If thinking about what had happened was puzzling, working out how it had happened was even more perplexing. It wasn't that South Africa had stuffed their opponent using their traditional method of intimidating and precise fast bowling - although there was some of that too. Instead their spinners took a combined 12 for 138 on a pitch that had hardly turned. As Williamson said afterwards, "We've spent a bit of time in India where it went square and we showed a lot better application than we have in this match."

It's all a bit of a mystery then, and the questions grow tougher still when it comes to looking at what New Zealand can do to win the final Test in Hamilton and earn a share of the series. With the wicket at Seddon Park expected to be the driest of the series and take considerable turn, the hosts had probably looked at it as their best chance to win a game until this calamity in Wellington, where they failed to handle South Africa's spin in a match that was not meant to be about spin at all.

The defeat has essentially highlighted New Zealand's problem, which is that they cannot match South Africa's quality in depth, and can not make up that shortfall by making the most of home ground advantage. While they were able to stamp their superiority against Pakistan and Bangladesh in their previous home Tests this summer by backing their pace attack on green wickets, they did not have the confidence to employ the same tactic against South Africa, and instead leaned towards dry surfaces and lots of spin. But that has not worked either, leaving New Zealand without an obvious strategy.

Asked what pitch he would prefer to have in Hamilton, Williamson did not really provide an answer. "We'll have to see what we've got in store, what side of the block it's on, etc.," he replied. "It does tend to be a slower surface, and offer a little bit of spin. I guess [Keshav] Maharaj and JP [Duminy] got a lot of their wickets beating batsmen on the outside, where the ball didn't turn much and perhaps drifted a little bit. They were very, very smart in how they bowled, using the wind. They did bowl very well but we need to be a lot better at playing it and being more positive."

The New Zealand captain said he was "not 100 per cent sure" about the status of Ross Taylor and Trent Boult for Hamilton, and their availability will presumably be the starting point when it comes time to pick an XI with the best chance of winning a match. Then the selectors must work out whether to stick with Tom Latham, who is in a horrendous slump with 33 runs from his last eight international innings but is surely their best opener in the long term, and who to pick as a second spinner.

"Probably [Mitchell] Santner because he bats as well," suggested Faf du Plessis. "If they play [Ish] Sodhi, their batting might be a bit thin." But the issue is muddied by the fact that Santner has never taken more than three wickets in a first-class innings, and Sodhi poses the greater threat.

The early finish to the second Test has given New Zealand an extra couple of days to work it all out. The third Test will essentially define their summer. Four wins over subcontinental opposition could slide towards insignificance with a series defeat to South Africa, or be accentuated by a 1-1 draw in this series.

"It is the final game of our home summer and it is important that we get back on the horse very quickly. We will try and look at this as a bad day, albeit very, very bad," said Williamson. "When you do play the best, there are some glaring things that stand out, and they do highlight areas you need to improve on. Those are the opportunities we have over the next few days, to get better for the last match."