Nightmare second day leaves Black Caps battling in first test against Australia
Friday, 1 March 2024
At the Basin Reserve, Wellington: Australia 383 all out in 115.1 overs (Cameron Green 174no; Matt Henry 5-70) & 13-2 in 8 overs (Tim Southee 2-5) met the Black Caps 179 all out in 43.1 overs (Glenn Phillips 71 off 70; Nathan Lyon 4-43). Click here for the full scorecard.
The Black Caps trail Australia by 217 runs at the end of day two of the first test.
Kane Williamson was run out for a two-ball duck in farcical circumstances.
Australia set a new record for any 10th-wicket partnership against New Zealand.
Glenn Phillips did his best to smash the Black Caps awake as a nightmare unfolded at the Basin Reserve on Friday.
But in the end the all-rounder’s innings of 71 off 70 balls could only provide brief respite, as the home team crumbled to be 179 all out in reply to Australia’s 383.
Tim Southee continued the fightback with the ball, removing Steve Smith, for a three-ball duck, and Marnus Labuschagne, for three, but at stumps on day two, the visitors were still in front by 217 runs at 13-2, with Nathan Lyon dropped by Southee at second slip off the last ball from Matt Henry.
The first source of pain on Friday was Australia’s last pair of Cameron Green (174no) and Josh Hazlewood (22), who batted for more than two hours, adding 104 runs to their overnight total and setting a new record for a 10th-wicket partnership against New Zealand.
The second was the Black Caps’ collapse to 29-5 in 17.1 overs, which featured as its centrepiece a calamitous run out – the product of a needless call by captain Kane Williamson after a push to mid-off.
He collided with a ball-watching Will Young in the middle of the pitch, then had to swerve around bowler Mitchell Starc, which left him well short when Marnus Labuschagne collected the ball and threw down the bowler’s end stumps.
Williamson’s two-ball duck was followed by a three-ball duck from Rachin Ravindra, the heir apparent, brought about when he hit Hazlewood to Lyon at point.
Tom Latham had already departed for five, bowled by Starc, while Daryl Mitchell (11) and Young (nine) were then caught behind by Alex Carey, off the respective bowling of Pat Cummins and Mitch Marsh.
At tea the Black Caps were 42-5 off 21 overs. After it, Phillips and Tom Blundell mounted a counter-attack, putting together a partnership of 84 runs off just 87 balls.
Phillips was the main aggressor, hitting 13 fours in total, while Blundell only found the boundary three times before he was caught at short leg by Travis Head off the bowling of Lyon for 33. The off-spinner than sent Scott Kuggeleijn packing for a second-ball duck.
Henry followed Phillips’ lead and then some, hitting three sixes before losing his senior partner when he top-edged a pull off Hazlewood to Starc. He went on to hit another and make 42 off 34, to go with 5-70 with the ball – his first five-wicket haul in 10 matches.
Lyon had Southee caught by Head for one, then dismissed Henry as well to finish with 4-43.
At stumps, Australia had Usman Khawaja and nightwatcher Lyon at the crease, on five and six respectively.
While the batting collapse was ugly, the real damage to the Black Caps’ hopes of winning against Australia at home for the first time since 1993 was done as they floundered while in search of a breakthrough in session one.
The record broken by Green and Hazlewood previously belonged to two Australians of a different era – bowlers Jason Gillespie and Glenn McGrath, who registered maiden half-centuries as they humiliated New Zealand in Brisbane in 2004.
On that occasion, the Black Caps responded by being rolled for 76. For a while on Friday, it looked like they might do worse. For a brief period, their record low against Australia of 42, set back in 1946, even looked under threat.
Neither eventuated, and they could yet fight back further, but by the end of day two it was almost as though the parity 24 hours earlier had been a dream.