South Africa 8-347 declared (Alviro Petersen 106, AB de Villiers 67, Hashim Amla 66, Jacques Kallis 60, Chris Martin 3-63, Trent Boult 3-78) beat New Zealand 45 and 275 (Dean Brownlie 109, Brendon McCullum 51, Dale Steyn 3-67) by an innings and 27 runs.

The mighty South Africa crushed the visiting New Zealand by a mammoth margin of over an innings in the 1^st Test just before the tea interval on day three.

New Zealand scored 45 mere runs in the first innings which was their third lowest in the longer version of the game. They followed by 275 in the second innings whereas South Africa amassed 347 runs for the loss of eight wickets when their only innings was declared.

Vernon Philander (South Africa) was declared ‘Player of the match’ for his destructive bowling in the game.

The first Test of the two match series concluded on Friday, January 4, 2013, at Newlands, Cape Town.

Earlier, the Black caps needed 133 to avoid the innings defeat with six wickets in hand. Dean Brownlie and BJ Watling were unbeaten on 69 and 10 runs respectively as the visitors scored 169 in 52 overs. The proceedings were slow in the beginning as the batsmen scored just 10 runs in the first seven overs. Watling hit the first four of the day in the 60^th over and Brownlie followed him in the next over. The duo kept on creeping and crossed the 200 runs mark seven overs later as Brownlie dispatched the first six of the day in the 71^st over.

Dean Brownlie thrashed his maiden Test century in style with a gigantic six over long-off. Watling kept on securing his end and the partnership was flourishing reasonably well and the batsmen were cruising well. They enhanced the score to 229 when Dean Brownlie was caught by Robin Peterson off Morne Morkel for 109 scored off 186 balls with 2 huge sixes and 13 fours. James Franklin joined in with Watling who was playing a defensive knock and had scored 28 runs off 108 deliveries until then. The two batsmen found it difficult to score the runs freely and Franklin was dropped by Alviro Petersen at gully off Vernon Philander when he had scored eight runs.

Watling lost his wicket for 42 off 151balls with 4 fours as the score touched 252 in 94.4 overs. James Franklin provided some resistance by scoring 22 runs as the tail was wiped off by the Proteas bowlers without any difficulty. The entire New Zealand was bowled out for 275 runs after utilizing 102.1 overs against the lethal bowling spell from the bowlers of the hosts.

Dale Steyn was the highest wicket taker with three, Vernon Philander and Jacques Kallis shared two each whereas Morne Morkel and Robin Peterson claimed one wicket each.

South Africa won the first Test by a huge margin of an innings and 27 runs and leads the two match series 1-0. The second and final Test will commence from January 11, 2013, at St George’s Park, Port Elizabeth.