Gifts From Across The Tasman

Brisbane days in early December are not meant to look sodull in their infancy. Mornings are meant to carry only the suggestion of airso thick that by late afternoon it can no longer support itself and gushesforth in dumping rains and growling thunder. Such liabilities have causedCricket Australia to begin an hour early in order not to lose an hour later.Those who in their cynicism claim the move was an offset to the northerners refusingto embrace daylight saving and the major broadcaster not wanting theirprogramming altered, may just take a flying leap, eh.

Starc receives his Baggy Green
from Mr Beige

This was a dull morning. Not even the news that three new Baggy Greens had been ordered and delivered lit the gloom or that Richie Benaud would present them incognito in what amounted to his version of jungle greens but to the restof the world looked like a dark coloured jacket. Three beaming smiles fromJames Pattinson, Mitchell Starc and Dave Warner didn’t break the gloom. Youngmen moving with the grace that only athletes can and old men moving from memory,didn’t break the gloom either.

Michael Clarke lost the toss – that much is a given but thedecision taken by Ross Taylor to bat may well have played right into theAustralian’s hands. With two new men in the attack, bowling first on a dullBrisbane day had many advantages, especially as batting last against DanielVettori is about as threatening as a berserk Grandma with a sponge cake. BenCutting, overlooked on his home deck, must have come awfully close to inclusionbut not at the expense of the other quicks. Nathan Lyon, despite impressingmore with each performance, was a viable option for the off field duties. Ifthere is anywhere you can play four quicks it is in Brisbane. It was not to be.

Play began with indecent haste: Brendan McCullum takingthree boundaries of Pattinson's first over. Peter Siddle, preventing two rookiesopening the bowling at both ends for the first time since 1970-71, was straightonto a good line in his first over but it was Pattinson who received theunwelcome welcome to Test cricket. After four Pattinson overs, the selectorsmust have been concerned about McCullum’s Cutting remarks and the tallVictorian was sent away for a rethink with 0-25. When he managed to keepGuptill on strike, he beat the outside edge. The first wicket fell after 55minutes, when Guptill, intent on playing wide of his off stump, tickled onefrom Siddle to Haddin. It was a poor shot, but he wasn’t alone.

McCullum cuts Starc to Warner at point

In the next hour before lunch, the Kiwis lost three morewickets. McCullum, who had slowed after his powerful start, played a big, fatlazy cut shot which he might have been placed anywhere if he had been patient.Instead, he thumped for all his worth and hit it straight to Warner, slightlybackward of point. It was a dreadful shot.  Starc had joined the attack and had Williamsonjumping about in his crease and when Nathan Lyon came on, one bit, turned andjumped and Williamson sent it from inside edge to pad and it dollied to UsmanKhawaja at short leg. Had he come forward, the ball would have been smothered.

Ross Taylor swipes

Then, with Jessie Ryder swinging at the ball like John Dalyon the morning after, the skipper, Ross Taylor, played a wild swipe at a balloutside his off stump. It was the sort of move that invited disaster anddisaster duly accepted, coming back from his inside edge and taking out hiscastle. It was a dreadful shot – in both execution and timing, just a fewdeliveries before lunch.

If the reckless batting before lunch hadn’t given the Kiwisindigestion, Ryder’s self-destruction afterwards certainly did. Like McCullumbefore him, he tried to make that little kookaburra nude and instead ofsmashing the cover of it, he smashed the New Zealand innings. Starc only had toput it short outside the off stump, wide enough to leave and Ryder’s impulsivebatting did the rest. Bang, straight to Warner at point. Dreadful short.

It's called "the ball" Skipper

Dean Brownlie, born an Aussie over in the west but fathered bya Kiwi, arrived at centre wicket and was peppered with short stuff. All of thequicks served up what must have been a calculated plan. Jittery at the crease,he soon was playing and missing and after twenty minutes, he sent a uniform fatedge straight into Clarke’s hands at first slip. Astonishingly, he dropped itand the crowd reaction was swift and heartless. Everyone groaned and some evenbooed. Obviously, the Michael Clarke PR campaign has some work left in it. Youcould hit that catch to him five hundred times and today’s drop would be the oneand only. Siddle was further disappointed when Warner dropped a hot chance highover his head in Siddle’s next over.

Dean Brownlie

The rest of the first hour after lunch achieved no further inroadsfor Clarke’s men whilst Vettori settled in. He is a batsman with such a limitedrange of shots but what he does, he does effectively.  After drinks, Clarke pulled a surprise byintroducing Michael Hussey into the attack. It seemed unwarranted but at leastit wasn’t an experiment he overdid. Why it was necessary to have a deep pointto Hussey is anyone’s guess, as surprising as having two men in the deep eitherside of square leg. Brownlie had settled and had lost his need to dance aboutthe crease and Australia had lost their chance to cripple the New Zealanderswhich the opposition had handed them.

The umpires sent them off at 2:35 for bad light and then thestorms which had been about the ground all day finally tired of circling andsettled in to end it.

At the toss, Clarke would have readily accepted the final scorelinebut his spilled catch would have exposed a deep tail of hitters which hisyoungsters would have deemed as scraps and eagerly fought over. Instead,Vettori has a toehold on one of his rescue missions and Brownlie has escapedfrom out the pressure cooker.

Australia still well on top and a fine debut from the threenew boys.