At the close of the fourth day, South Africa were 277 for six, still 22 runs adrift of New Zealand's first innings total with Jacques Rudolph (121) and Shaun Pollock (5) the not out batsmen going into the final day.

After dismissing New Zealand for 595 in the morning, the Proteas set about the tough task of erasing a 299-run first innings deficit in the worse possible fashion, losing skipper Graeme Smith off the first delivery of their second innings.

The Proteas battled back in the afternoon and were cruising at 249 for two after Herschelle Gibbs and Rudolph had put on 103 for the second wicket and the latter had been joined by Jacques Kallis to add 146 for the third.

But Martin, who took six wickets in the first innings, had other ideas and captured three of the four wickets to fall in the last 12 overs of the day.

The initial breakthrough was made by part-time bowler Craig McMillan when he trapped Kallis leg before for 71, putting an end to the burly all-rounder's bid to emulate Sir Donald Bradman with six centuries in consecutive test matches.

Playing his first test for two years, Martin built on the shift in momentum to dismiss Gary Kirsten for one and Neil McKenzie for a duck off the next delivery.

When the new ball was taken, Martin got Mark Boucher to edge a catch to Brendon McCullum as New Zealand pressed for victory.

Martin's match figures to date are 10-147, the best for a Black Cap against South Africa.

THIRD CENTURY

At the other end watching the carnage was Rudolph, who reached his third century during the partnership with Kallis and will need to stay at the crease for as long as possible if the tourists are to retain any hope of saving the match.

"There is still a lot of hard work to be done for them to win," Rudolph said.

"We've got to work through the new ball tomorrow by really knuckling down and concentrating ball-by-ball.

"We've also got to be positive. The key to playing this wicket is to capitalise on the bad balls and get them to the boundary."

Rudolph said he had to work much harder for this century than for his other two, including the 222 not out he scored against Bangladesh at Chittagong last April.

"It isn't easy but you have to be really careful," he said.

Resuming on 584 for eight, Daryl Tuffey hit two handsome drives for four before he was bowled in Pollock's second over for 13 and last man Martin fell in similar fashion three balls later.

Martin's wicket, an international record ninth consecutive test duck, left South Africa with an almost impossible task of preventing the home side from taking a 1-0 lead in the series after the first test in Hamilton was drawn.

Scorecard:

South Africa first innings 296 (Graeme Smith 88, Herschelle Gibbs 80; Chris Martin 6-76).

New Zealand first innings (overnight 584-8)
M Richardson c Gibbs b Kallis 45
M Papps c Boje b Pollock 0
S Fleming c Kallis b Ntini 4
S Styris c Pollock b Boje 170
C McMillan b Pollock 82
B McCullum b Ntini 13
C Cairns c Kallis b Smith 158
J Oram b Ntini 90
D Vettori not out 4
D Tuffey b Pollock 13
C Martin b Pollock 0
Extras (1b-10, nb-6) 16
Total (all out, 148.5 overs) 595

Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-12, 3-137, 4-285, 5-314, 6-349, 7-574, 8-578, 9-595.

Bowling: Pollock 32.5-6-113-4 (nb-1), Ntini 36-7-110-3 (nb-5), Terbrugge 22-4-93-0, Kallis 23-1-108-1, Boje 22-2-108-1, McKenzie 2-0-8-0, Rudolph 6-0-26-0, Smith 5-0-19-1.

South Africa second innings
G.Smith b Martin 0
H.Gibbs lbw b Oram 61
J.Rudolph not out 121
J.Kallis lbw b McMillan 71
G.Kirsten lbw b Martin 1
N.McKenzie c Papps b Martin 0
M.Boucher c Fleming b Martin 10
S.Pollock not out 5
Extras (b-6 lb-1 nb-1) 8
Total (for six wickets, 83 overs) 277

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-103, 3-249, 4-250, 5-250, 6-272.

To bat: N.Boje, M.Ntini, D.Terbrugge.

Bowling: Martin 17-4-71-4, Oram 17-7-43-1, Tuffey 4-1-13-0, Cairns 7-0-47-0 (nb-1), Vettori 19-4-54-0, Styris 13-5-39-0, McMillan 4-1-3-1.