More of the same from NZ's batting, but to be fair I wouldn't blame them too much on this occasion. Australia are good at keeping a struggling side down, and accordingly laid out the, um, green carpet (check out Dave's post yesterday; in the first session, the look of the pitch wasn't far off what you see in the photo). This time the batsmen tried play responsibly, but the conditions were brilliantly exploited by Siddle and Pattinson, though Starc was ordinary and was rather lucky to get his two wickets. At least the horrendous shot selection seen at the Gabba was largely absent.
A couple of guys did contribute to their demise. Guptill got a good delivery from Siddle but once again offered an angled bat, Reece Young was a walking wicket, and to repeat what I observed earlier Jesse Ryder seems to be in a bad place at the moment. And for the third consecutive time, Tim Southee was forming a partnership with Dean Brownlie only to throw it away. Southee is proving to be a waste of batting ability, if he were to knuckle down there are valuable runs to be had. Brownlie, again, was a class above the rest and his judgement and (importantly) mindset should be a lesson to the team.
But on the whole, my feeling is that better batting sides would have struggled to put up a decent score on that strip - nothing wrong with having the odd greentop, by the way. Thing is, if you're batting first you need your fair share of luck, and it was Australia who got all the breaks today. Winning the toss and learning that Vettori wouldn't be playing was just the start. As with the Gabba, the two lbw reviews were marginal and went Australia's way. McCullum and Williamson looked in control during their partnership, only for the wunderkind to be caught down the legside, unfortunately. Baz played with hitherto unseen powers of restraint and was then removed by Pattinson with a peach. To cap off a frustrating day, the rain came just when the Australian batsmen were having a very awkward time against Chris Martin and Trent Boult.
Of possible encouragment for NZ is the common consensus that the pitch will play similarly tomorrow. What they can do is show that they've learned from the Brisbane mistakes and bowl and field a lot better. That will still probably not be enough against Clarke, Ponting and Hussey, but at least there's the prospect of a battle.
Top Cricket From The Second Tier
13 years ago
4 comments:
Yep, a good toss to win that one. Pup did exactly the right thing by opting to bowl first. Thing is, though, now we have to bat on pretty much the same surface ... who knows?
What happened to Vettori? How am I supposed to enjoy watching NZ now? I need my eye candy!
Vettori's injured his hamstring before the game. It's created an interesting exercise in seeing how NZ are doing without him..predictably the batting was worse off, but four seamers on this wicket has meant Australia are 81/7 at lunch as of now.
How right you were about that pitch ... but do you have to keep punishing pur bowlers now as well?
The pitch did play the same for most part, but the conditions were also perfect for swing which made batting even more of a challenge.
Re the Aussie bowlers: I think the ten overs before tea were crucial, and Pattinson and Siddle wasted the new ball. Batting seems to be a lot easier when the ball gets older, which perhaps explains why both teams got partnerships going after being 6 or 7 down in the first innings.
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