Cairns joins all-round legends

New Zealand eased to a nine-wicket win over South Africa to take a 1-0 lead in their three-match series with one match remaining.

The Black Caps dismissed the tourists for 349 on the final day, despite Jacques Rudolph's 154 not out, leaving themselves only 51 for victory.

Captain Stephen Fleming blazed 31 runs from 11 balls to wrap things up.

Earlier, team-mate Chris Cairns became the sixth player in Test history to score 3,000 runs and take 200 wickets.

All-rounder Cairns combined with Man of the Match Chris Martin to destroy South Africa's tail after they resumed on 277-6.

Martin claimed his fifth wicket of the innings when he had Shaun Pollock caught at first slip for 10 and finished with match figures of 11-180.

The other three wickets went to Cairns, who had passed the 3,000 Test runs mark with his 158 earlier in the game.

We deserved the beating after the way we performed in most facets of the game SA skipper Graeme Smith

Having failed to claim a single victim during South Africa's first innings, Cairns' 200th wicket finally arrived when he had Nicky Boje caught behind for 20.

Freed of the pressure, he made short work of the final pair, as Makhaya Ntini and David Terbrugge followed for six and two respectively.

Their dismissals also ended Rudolph's marathon innings as the left-hander finished unbeaten after seven hours and 19 minutes at the crease.

He hit a six and 27 fours in his highest Test score since making 222 not out in his debut against Bangladesh in April last year.

Rudolph stood alone for South Africa on the final day

It was just a question of how long New Zealand would take to complete the formalities.

Mark Richardson was caught off Ntini for 10 in the eight over, but home skipper Fleming was in no mood to hang about and finished things off in grand style by hitting Boje for a huge six.

New Zealand have now beaten South Africa four times in 29 Tests, with the effort here the first at home in 12 matches since 1931-32.

They will now attempt to complete a series win in the third Test in Wellington which begins on Friday.

New Zealand: M H Richardson, M H W Papps, S P Fleming (Capt) S B Styris, C D McMillan, C L Cairns, J D P Oram, B B McCullum (Wkt) D L Vettori, C S Martin, D R Tuffey.

South Africa: G C Smith (Capt), H H Gibbs, J A Rudolph, J H Kallis G Kirsten, N D McKenzie, M V Boucher (Wkt), S M Pollock, N Boje D J Terbrugge, M Ntini.