Jeet and Jeetan show up for Williamson

Test cricket, as Faf du Plessis would explain, is most often won or lost on the extent to which a team can call on its experience. The senior players in the side - those who have seen similar situations and can show the younger ones what to do to (or what not to) - are the ones who need to step up in the crucial moments. For New Zealand, who won all three sessions despite losing Ross Taylor to a calf injury on day two, they did.

Kane Williamson has nibbled away at the total and remains unbeaten on 78, Trent Boult finished with four wickets and wiped out the tail, and Neil Wagner made the crucial breakthrough, removing centurion Dean Elgar, for whom the sky seemed the limit after he reached a new career-best. But it was not just that trio whose efforts gave New Zealand the honours. It was the lesser-knowns - Jeetan Patel and Jeet Raval - who ushered New Zealand through two of the trickiest passages of play and set them up for success.

Patel was given the ball two overs after Elgar was removed, at a time when South Africa's x-factor batsman, Quinton de Kock, joined a well-set Temba Bavuma at the crease. That Patel was preferred to Mitchell Santner, New Zealand's first-choice spinner over the last year, could only be read into as far as the fact that Patel has made de Kock something of a bunny - he got him in both the games he played in the ODI series.

From the first ball, it looked as though de Kock had the ears on. He attacked a tossed-up delivery, with too much force and not enough finesse, as he had been doing in the ODIs. De Kock's approach seems to be to take on Patel. When he gets to the pitch of the ball, it works, but when he does not, he ends up doing what he did on the second day. He sliced the ball to backward point to end a frustrating half-an-hour in the middle, and Patel had opened South Africa up.

He broke the partnership that could have taken the score to 400. Although Bavuma and de Kock are the two youngest batsmen in the team, they have shown that together they can be a force. Just think of their series-winning 144-run sixth-wicket stand in Hobart last November. Bavuma had not looked in good rhythm since then, and having found his groove, he looked set to go on. De Kock would have been the perfect partner. But after his dismissal, Bavuma only lasted three more overs before nicking off. Williamson kept Patel on to try and nip out the tail.

To them, Patel presented his full array: drift, turn and a few that went straight on. Boult got most of the rewards from the other end, but Patel managed one more wicket when Kagiso Rabada misjudged a leave and lost his off stump. In that nine-over spell, Patel took 2 for 25, a return he won't be displeased with, having only recently returned to the Test side.

Before October last year, Patel spent three years out of the team. He was dropped after the tour of South Africa in 2013. In that time, he was refused a national call-up - to the West Indies in 2014 after he had signed a county deal - and made a name at Warwickshire. He was their leading wicket-taker in the 2015 Championship with 58 wickets at 25.27, and the top bowler overall last year, with 69 wickets at 24.02. Despite his form, New Zealand cricket seemed to have moved on, and he admitted he "didn't think I'd ever be here again," when he was recalled last October, during the India tour.

He did not do enough to keep his place in the team and was not included in any of New Zealand's home Tests this summer. Not until now. And now could be the best time for him to enjoy a longer run. Santner ended up not bowling at all on the second day and with New Zealand likely to play only one spinner in Wellington, Patel has made a strong case to be that man if he keeps it up in the second innings.

Raval has done the same for his claims on the opening berth, where he is still trying to establish a permanent foothold. He fronted up to South Africa's attack and showed off a solid defence, a sound temperament and - on two occasions - a sensational cover drive. His off-stump awareness was particularly important for facing up to Vernon Philander, who probed in the fourth-stump channel, searching for the smallest flaw in Raval's technique.

Against Rabada and Morne Morkel, Raval was asked questions with the short ball and he answered them by tucking some into the leg side, watching others fly past and most importantly, not being tempted into risking a cut or pull. Like his captain, Raval targeted South Africa's sole specialist spinner, although Keshav Maharaj had the final say. Even though Maharaj struggled for the same control Patel had maintained, he burgled a wicket when Raval threw away a measured start and picked out Dean Elgar at midwicket.

The New Zealand opener seemed set to surpass his top score of 55 and should have been at Williamson's side at the close of play. But this is only his fifth Test and as du Plessis would say, at this level, there's no substitute for experience.