SA-born Wagner's war of words backfire as Jansen, Maharaj respond with fierce batting

Marco Jansen again showed he wouldn't back down from Test cricket's tough confrontations despite his youthfulness after taking on Neil Wagner at Hagley Oval.

The rookie Proteas pacer, batting fiercely with spinner Keshav Maharaj late in SA's first innings, was on the receiving end of some bullish New Zealand fast bowling on the second day of the second Test in Christchurch.

But, just as he did when he stood up to Jasprit Bumrah in SA's Test series win over India this summer, Jansen refused to back down and pushed back instead.

SCORECARD | New Zealand v South Africa, Second Test, Day Two

This time, he let his bat do the talking against some provocative Wagner taunts and short-pitched bowling meant to intimidate the 21-year-old.

Wagner apparently told Jansen, "Just don't break. You're that skinny, you'll break" after hitting the beanpole on the arm with a bouncer.

That was just the fuel Jansen needed to put Wagner to the sword. Jansen hit two fours off Wagner in one over and two boundaries off his next.

Maharaj got in on the fun and hit three fours from the Wagner over after that, which cost 14 runs.

Maharaj had joined the fray when Wagner dismissed Kagiso Rabada and the pair put on a precious 62-run partnership from 79 deliveries.

"Wagner, as always, came hard, especially with the short balls," said Jansen after stumps, when the Proteas led New Zealand by 207 runs.

"Me and Kesh decided to take the positive option and we're not going to [backtrack]. If it's in our area, we're going to try and capitalise on it.

"Obviously, not playing recklessly but, if it's in our area, we decided we're going to have a full go and it got quite … not that heated but there were a few words said.

"It was just two guys going at each other being very