AUCKLAND, March 19: New Zealand's Scott Styris shone with the bat and Chris Martin with the ball as the home side dominated the second day of the second Test to trail South Africa by just 95 runs with seven wickets remaining on Friday.

Styris blasted an unbeaten 118 as New Zealand ended the day on 201 for three wickets after recalled medium-fast bowler Martin had ripped through South Africa's batting, taking five of his six-wicket haul to help dismiss the Proteas for 296.

The New Zealand reply began shakily when they lost Michael Papps and skipper Stephen Fleming cheaply to be struggling at 12 for two when Styris joined Mark Richardson.

Papps's wicket was a significant one for Shaun Pollock, who overtook Alan Donald as South Africa's leading wicket taker in Tests with 331. The belligerent Styris and the methodical Richardson hauled the home side out of trouble with a record third wicket partnership of 125, beating the 50-year-old mark against South Africa of 94 set by Matt Poore and Bert Sutcliffe in Cape Town.

As the partnership progressed, Styris provided the big hits and Richardson the deft touches, although the left-handed opener went out to an aggressive shot.

He had hit Jacques Kallis off the back foot through the covers for four and off the next ball attempted the same shot, but slashed the ball straight to Herschelle Gibbs in the gulley to be out for 45.

Styris went on to score his third Test century off 121 balls in 173 minutes and hit 16 fours and two sixes. Resuming in a strong position at 231 for two, the tourists were unable to gain any sort of momentum and lost eight wickets for 65 runs in a dramatic collapse.

Playing in his 12th Test and almost two years after his last appearance, Martin claimed his second wicket of the match in his second over of the day when he induced an edge from overnight batsman Jacques Rudolph (17) to Papps at third slip.

Seeking to score his sixth century in six Tests, Kallis was next to go, edging a Martin delivery to Brendon McCullum after adding just a single to his overnight score of 39.

Martin removed McKenzie and Ntini in his second over after lunch before Oram finished off the tail, trapping David Terbrugge leg before. Martin finished with career best figures of 6-76, with Oram (2-60) the pick of the other bowlers. The three-match series is tied at 0-0 after the sides battled out a draw in Hamilton last week.

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