NZ VS RSA - 1st Test, South Africa tour of New Zealand, 2017

Dean Elgar's grit stood out, and so did Jeetan Patel's late bloom as New Zealand's premier spinner. A dry Dunedin track has South Africa pondering on importing another spinner from back home, and Wellington waits, eager to surprise them in the second Test that starts on Thursday (March 16). An unworthy end to a great contest in the making then. Here's hoping that Basin Reserve takes over. Join us for that too. Take care, ta-ta!

01:45pm local: With the forecast being as morbid as it is for the day, the match has been declared drawn. Captains shake hands and that will be it.

Lunch, Day 5 - 01:00pm local: They have taken the lunch break. Rain - 1, cricket fanatics - 0.

12:36 Local Time: BlackCaps have tweeted this - Rain still falling in Dunedin. Umpires won't inspect pitch until it stops. A lot of water on covers. No good news we are afraid..

12:00 Local Time: It is still raining. And Faf du Plessis must be having his corn chips at the hotel. The teams still haven't arrived at the ground but the groundstaff is starting to buzz. We'll let you know.

11:15 Local Time: As we wait for the monotony in the news coming in to change, we have confirmed news that Ross Taylor has officially been ruled out of the next Test. More than as a batsman, he is likely to be missed as a slipper. A body blow this going to Wellington, a modern batting beauty.

10:50 Local Time: The players haven't made their way out of their respective hotels as yet. Shows how grim the forecast for the rest of the day is. The BlackCaps twitter handle has posted a video of the scenes out in the middle. Not a soul is to be seen in the pictures coming in. Just a couple of white sheets covering the pitch and the square. And some monstrous black clouds hovering over with the nagging drizzle playing itself.

Kinda feels like a thriller, with all the twists and turns and top notch chase sequences. And just when the climax is about to unfold the electricity supply gets cut. Or worse, your Netflix account runs out of its money. Let's hope the supply resumes and the recharge is done...soon. The first four days seemed like a pleasant throwback to the times where attritional play was sexy. The pendulum swung, ever so religiously. Just that the moment where we look for closure is letting us down!

10:15 local time: All the prayers, against the odds, against the met apps and against all sorts of forecasts seems to have gone down the drain. Dunedin welcomes us with the news - the one we always feared. Yes folks, it is raining at the moment and is pretty grim out there. To alleviate your fears, it has been raining all through the night as well and the drainage facilities here are ..umm..err..some things are best kept secret. Fingers, toes and every possible thing kept crossed.

***

A slow day of Test cricket, but that's where the joy lies. With South Africa's lead at 191 now, we look set for a thrilling last day's play. Join us for day five.. Until then, ta-ta!

Jeetan Patel's player profile on Cricbuzz labels him a "restrictive off-spinner", and for the right reasons, as advocated by his marathon 28-over spell across the lunch and tea breaks today. But on a pitch breaking up with every ball that's bowled, he can only be so restrictive. His own genius conspired against it today. Only symbolic that he outwitted Dean Elgar's (140 and 89) grit with some of his own and then bowled that ball to de Kock, who atypically looked to survive under fading lights, and succumbed to the one that ripped right across him. Only fair, Jeetan. Only fair.

Stumps, Day 4 - 06:45pm local: That will be it for today. The light's not improving - hoping for that did make for some misplaced optimism - but gee, this was a day for the foot soldiers of cricket. Jeetan Patel and Dean Elgar. Throw in a bit of Wagner in there, but he's got his share of glory of late. Even Dean Elgar has, but that innings, on this pitch, at a time when South Africa threatened to implode, deserves some more.

06:35pm local: Cricket South Africa tweets this -- "It's not yet stumps, umpires are still assessing and discussing."

06:33pm local: The lightmeter's won for now. Players walk back; the light is not good enough. "...Umpires still out in middle discussing at this stage," says a tweet from the Blackcaps. Not necessarily stumps.

Jeetan Patel to Philander, no run, defends it into the leg-side

Jeetan Patel to Philander, no run,

Jeetan Patel to Philander, no run,

Jeetan Patel to Philander, no run, too full, jammed out to FSL

Jeetan Patel to Philander, no run, arrowed full from round the wicket on the pad, Philander blocks it