Bruce Mitchell's fifty year-old record as South Africa's leading run scorer in Test matches is about to fall if South Africa bat a second time in the Third Test against New Zealand. Mitchell finished the last of his 42 Test matches on 9 March 1949, having scored 3471 runs. Gary Kirsten and Hansie Cronje are both within striking distance if they can muster a handful of runs in the second innings.

Should South Africa win by an innings tomorrow, all will have to wait until the Proteas' next Test appearance, expected to be against Zimbabwe in October.

South African batsmen with more than 2000 runs in Tests (complete to close of play, 20 March 1999):

B Mitchell           42   80   9  3471  189*  48.88   8  21   56  -
*WJ Cronje           59   99   9  3465  135   38.50   6  21   29  -
*G Kirsten           53   94   8  3464  210   40.27   9  18   42  -
*DJ Cullinan         48   79   7  3107  275*  43.15   8  15   42  -
AD Nourse            34   62   7  2960  231   53.81   9  14   12  -
HW Taylor            42   76   4  2936  176   40.77   7  17   19  -
EJ Barlow            30   57   2  2516  201   45.74   6  15   35  -
TL Goddard           41   78   5  2516  112   34.46   1  18   48  -
DJ McGlew            34   64   6  2440  255*  42.06   7  10   18  -
JHB Waite            50   86   7  2405  134   30.44   4  16  124 17
RG Pollock           23   41   4  2256  274   60.97   7  11   17  -
AW Nourse            45   83   8  2234  111   29.78   1  15   43  -
RA McLean            40   73   3  2120  142   30.28   5  10   23  -
*JN Rhodes           44   68   7  2114  117   34.65   3  12   23  -
AC Hudson            35   63   3  2007  163   33.45   4  13   36  -

* denotes playing in the current Test