What a contrasting two days of Test cricket! One a surreal hybrid of Test, one-day and T20 that was as exhilarating as it was unexpected, given the initial appearance of the Hagley Oval pitch. And the second, an old-style, “grind ‘em out”, battle of attrition.
It is difficult to imagine a better example of how and why Test cricket draws its reverent disciples in. Violent mood swings and momentum shifts on the opening day, set against day two and the steely resolve shown by Joe Burns and Steve Smith to claw back the initiative so audaciously stolen from them by Brendon McCullum.
FOLLOW LIVE SCORES OF AUSTRALIA VS NEW ZEALAND HERE
T20 has plenty of what McCullum’s blade delivered on Saturday, but what it doesn’t have is context. Consider the value proposition in smacking boundaries for the Brisbane Heat in holiday season, against coming in at 32/3 in your final Test match, on a green-top. The gulf is vast.
Ebbs and flows, the passage of time, the opportunity for second innings redemption; these are things that must never be lost from the game, no matter what ratings statistics the marketeers and money men live by.
If McCullum has one regret it will be that this pitch did not deliver on its promise of continued assistance for the bowlers beyond the first day. He has been on the wrong end of the toss far more times than he cares to remember, although with the New Zealand innings done and dusted within 66 overs, he must have felt that he had negated the toss and allowed himself enough of an opportunity to enjoy helpful bowling conditions.
However, after winkling out Usman Khawaja early, day two came up drier for the New Zealand attack than a Teetotaller Society Xmas party.
Not only was sideways movement off the pitch conspicuously absent, the bright, sunny Canterbury sky ensured that there was no swing. And with that, no matter how hard the bowlers tried, they were always going to struggle against batting as committed as that of Burns and Smith.
By contrast to day one the scoring rate was almost dead; Australia so far using 44 overs more than their opponent, and still seven runs short of matching their first innings total.
Smith knows however that he doesn’t have to chase the game. Australia leads the series and there is time aplenty. Now having achieved virtual parity on the scoreboard, and with six wickets in hand, two more good sessions will see Australia bat New Zealand out of the game – and in doing so, temper the fairytale ending for McCullum.
With Burns and Smith so effectively blunting the New Zealand attack, talk turned to selection, specifically team balance, and the absence of a specialist spin option in the Black Caps’ attack.
All of which is merely hindsight – Monday morning quarterback chatter. Given the disdain with which the Australian batsmen have treated Mark Craig all summer, and a look of the pitch on match-day morning, anyone promoting the inclusion of Craig over Neil Wagner would have rightly marked themselves as a candidate for an asylum.
Nathan Lyon plays for Australia because he has developed into a world-class spin bowler, not just because he is a spin bowler. Craig has missed his opportunity to make himself indispensible, hence his non-selection.
That opportunity now presents itself to Mitchell Santner and Ish Sohdi. For New Zealand to go from a highly competitive Test nation to a genuinely consistent top-ranker, they need a world class spinner to balance their attack. But for now, that will have to wait for another day.
For this writer, Saturday dawned with a special buzz in the air, courtesy of an astonishing performance by the Dave Rawlings Machine on Friday night at the Palais. With the US presidential race potentially shaping as a showdown between an ageing socialist and a loose-cannon, comb-over merchant, one can be excused for losing faith in America.
Anyone looking to restore that faith, who believes that there is music which resides beyond FM radio and MTV awards, can find rich reward in Rawlings, Gillian Welch and band tracing a path through a very different America; an authentic and honest world where, in the shadow of Woody Guthrie, this land is very much our land too.
The impact of the concert was so profound that Kane Williamson struggling to hit it off the square for 90 minutes passed with barely a concern. Which made McCullum’s blistering attack, when it came, all the more powerful.
Mitchell Marsh did his best to spoil the fun, his catch at gully as good as any in recent memory; only to be let down by James Pattinson’s overstep. Notably not his first offence in this department.
If the eventual outcome doesn’t teach him to rein things back then surely nothing will. It wasn’t just the additional 106 runs off McCullum’s bat, but the injection of positivity that surged into the New Zealand lower order, which diminished Australia to an improbably poor position – all within the space of a single session.
Saturday night bought a change of vibe; Americana giving way to the ever reliable beats of Fat Freddy’s Drop at the Forum. My mate Julian jokes that the only downside of a Fat Freddy gig is having to navigate so many New Zealanders in one place – which never seems to stop him attending. But yes, it wouldn’t have been out of place for singer Joe Dukie to interrupt proceedings to pay tribute to McCullum’s new 54-ball, world record century.
Later, Melbourne’s ‘White Night’ event proved far less inspirational – basically a whole lot of people milling around waiting for, frankly, not much to happen.
Which, upon reflection, only served to foretell the change in the Hagley Oval Test. The almost surreal events of Saturday were never going to flow into day two.
Burns and Smith duly ensured that the emotional highs were scaled back to normal levels, and all credit to them for doing so. It is clear that this Australian side has a backbone.
If New Zealand want to raise those emotional levels again, and send McCullum out a winner, then they are going to need a minor miracle. Perhaps even a major one.
The mammoth rise of Jake Fraser-McGurk - his enormous potential and the destructive shot-making that he possesses makes him a very tempting option.
Marcus Stoinis produced his first IPL century and it was a beauty. He went 6, 4, 4, 4 to finish off the Lucknow Super…
Xavier Bartlett has been permission to extend his cricketing education with a spell of T20s in England, playing in the Blast competition for Kent…
Three-Test spinner Matthew Kuhnemann has signed with Tasmania in a bid for red-ball game time ahead of Australia's tour of Sri Lanka next summer.…
Last week, you read about the Matt XI, a compilation of the best cricketers ever to represent the name Matt. And to be fair,…
The Aussie needed every centimetre of his height and reach to reel that one in!
