Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson are hopping, lunging and fending. Never before in their Test careers have I seen this champion Kiwi pair look so unsettled. New Zealand might have climbed to second in the Test rankings but the challenge they’re facing now is an alien one.
The pitch is fast and bouncy and Australia are deploying three elite quicks who bowl 140kmh-plus and get the ball to leap alarmingly off the deck. These two accomplished Kiwi veterans have batted with authority in series after series across their long and hugely successful careers.
Now, however, they look like rookies. Williamson repeatedly is getting beaten on the outside and inside edges. Taylor, meanwhile, is desperately fending off a succession of balls destined for his helmet’s grill. Despite their quality, both batsmen look like sitting ducks and the Black Caps already have lost two wickets inside the first ten overs of their innings.
Then Williamson pushes at a ball outside off stump, which nicks through to wicketkeeper Tim Paine and is given a reprieve by the umpire. The Kiwi is a superstar of this format yet even he is out of his comfort zone right now. Soon after Mitchell Starc gets the ball to explode off a length, Williamson edges and Steve Smith launches himself to take a spectacular diving catch.
Normally a batsman would consider himself unlucky in such circumstances. But this time Williamson had already been worked over at length by the outstanding Australian pace attack.
At the other end Taylor is fortunate to still be there, having been turned inside out by the Aussie attack for about an hour. New Zealand are facing the harsh challenge they always expected in Australia.
For whatever reason, the New Zealanders have always been most intimidated by their cross-Tasman foes. Even when logic dictated they should be more wary of India or South Africa, the Kiwis remained most perturbed by the Aussies.
At times that was silly. Now, however, it appears justified. After Australia nearly batted New Zealand into the turf, making 416 from a whopping 146 overs, the hosts grabbed the new ball and cut sick. Tom Latham may have a great Test record and he may have smashed Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, but he is unproven against proper Test attacks.
The same goes for Henry Nicholls who, like Latham, failed last night and is yet to make runs against the strongest bowling sides of Australia, India and South Africa.
There are mitigating factors at play here. The Kiwis would love to play more often against the elite teams. But their minimal drawing power means they don’t and that their players aren’t as battle-hardened as those from Australia, England and India.
Meanwhile, even as the remainder of the Kiwi top six subsided, their most seasoned player stood firm. Taylor is in his 13th year as a Test cricketer and with that experience comes wisdom. When Australian spinner Nathan Lyon took the ball, Taylor launched a calculated counter attack. Recognising that Lyon would be needed to bowl long, economical spells in the harsh Perth heat, Taylor went after him immediately, skipping down the pitch and looking to crunch him through the in-field.
A succession of boundaries off Lyon boosted the confidence of Taylor and placed the spinner under pressure.
New Zealand were under enough stress trying to repel Australia’s quicks without needing to worry about their veteran spinner. Even still, Starc kept coming. The Aussie left armer is never more dangerous than with a pink ball in hand and proved that again yesterday. After beating Latham for pace and sucking in Williamson, he got lucky with a Nicholls strangle down leg and then castled nightwatchman Neil Wagner.
Wagner bowled with admirable persistence during the Aussie innings. Yet he must have watched on with envy at the effortless penetration that Starc boasts. While Wagner’s four wickets took 37 overs, Starc grabbed his four in just 11 overs. This rare wicket taking prowess has long been underappreciated by the Aussie public, despite Starc owning 233 Test wickets at 27.
Starc’s Test record is every bit as good, if not better, than Kiwi foe Trent Boult, yet so many cricket fans treat him with disrespect. Starc seems to be on a mission to embarrass these fans and the Aussie selectors who ignored him through four of the five Ashes Tests. Since returning to the Aussie line-up this summer he has hauled in 18 wickets at 15 from three Tests.
Last night he rattled Kiwi legends Williamson and Taylor. If Starc bowls with similar ferocity and precision tomorrow it is hard to see how New Zealand will avoid being steamrolled in their first innings and losing any hold on this series.
Bobbo7
Guest
Australia were excellent. However, they need to get teams to have meaningful warm ups in these conditions. NZ flew into the country 5 days before the game, 15 degrees hotter, bouncier pitches, different ball and no warm up game. Last time in did have a warm up in Australia the game had to be abandoned because of a terrible pitch. You simply cannot expect touring sides to rock up and be anywhere good enough with no meaningful preparation. This is not to take anything away from Australia - they were excellent but it was clear NZ batsman were not conditioned to these conditions and had no proper preparation.
Republican
Guest
......don't fret, your point will be proven in both Sydney & Melbourne James. Typical Australian Hubris being expressed here.
Republican
Guest
.......still reckon they will be dangerous and potentially take the series from us courtesy of the Melbourne & possibly even the Sydney conditions.
Pedro The Fisherman
Roar Rookie
Wasn't the first test between NZ and England a Day-Night Test?
Pedro The Fisherman
Roar Rookie
Sniff Sniff. We waz robbed. Robbed I tells ya! Everyone said that we waz the 2nd best team in the world so we have to win ... but it seems that we struggle when we have to play under different conditions than those available in New Zealand where they have small postage stamp sized grounds and unnatural swing that inflate averages.
Pedro The Fisherman
Roar Rookie
I was going to ask Lou Vincent who to back before the test started but apparently he couldn't get in contact with Chris Cairns! The Kiwis don't bat for too long under any conditions by the looks of it!
James
Roar Rookie
Poor decision by the ICC. Money grabbing exercise. It is not evolution it is bastardisation! "but you are more than welcome not to watch" Thanks I was seeking your approval.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
Possibly, but CA pays Cooley and a number of others to coach bowlers. As an ex bowler I'm aware changes are hard mid series, but his strike rate wasn't broken. He certainly has responded to the tweak, but I don't believe it was necessary to sit him out. Then when he performed in the 4th Test he should've been backing up. I don't believe he was left out for remedial work anyway, it was a rotation decision made prior to the series based on previous performance in those conditions, otherwise Siddle never woulda been in the squad.
Arnab Bhattacharya
Roar Guru
Not having a pink ball warm up game was poor prep IMO. That way the batsmen would’ve adjusted to the bounce a lot better
Targa
Roar Rookie
Someone did the 800/1500 double in 1920 apparently but Snell (1964) plus 800 gold in 1960 is the only one since then. Our batsmen are going to need some of his courage for the last day and a half.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
3 olympic gold medals in the 800-1500 metres is a great record all right. The only man to ever win them both at the same olympics I believe. You've lost a good'n for sure.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
He has been bowling better since he tweaked his action though and he only did that because they told him he was getting too wayward. Dropping him for the first 3 Ashes tests might have been the kick up the ring he needed. .. Couldn't believe they dropped him for the 5th test though. He'd bowled pretty well in the 4th. That was a mistake and got even worse because Siddle got a bit injured during the game.
matth
Roar Guru
But it is test cricket. The ICC have given it test status, but you are more than welcome to not watch and keep your own set of statistics. The game evolves, otherwise it would still be underarm with two stumps over three days on uncovered pitches. You can accept change or not of course.
Pierro
Roar Rookie
yep and also nz didn’t even make it to evening first innings anyway. I think i just noted there starc was good with opening spell, but the english game was real dark and damp with lights being put on early and them playing through rainy patches at times. NZ match got really cold and damp in evenings., it was real cold when boult was trying to bowl us out and we were going for runs. Adelaide seems to be in cold and rain at ties pre december still in the evenings. Suits starc thats for sure. He ran through england there although england were poor. He certainly likes this perth stadium too with DN. His best two grounds it seems by some distance.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
When I was researching, it was apparent Starc went off with ankle injury mid-afternoon during middle of NZ first innings and didn't bowl again. Hence why no bowling figures for the evening sessions that Test.
Pierro
Roar Rookie
Another little tit bit in Adelaide 2015, Starc was injured second innings and didn’t bowl but claimed 3 in the first innings spell . Starc got through first innings with new ball but NZ were out before the evening session. So that accounts for adelaide there starc never bowled at night technically there despite damp and often dark conditions in a few days there and a few warm days but cold evening.s I recall boult bowling at us there in the evening when we were going for the win and he was giving us all sorts of bother in the evening Im also not sure on your data on the england match. He did bowl first innings but think you mean not at night. I don’t think the aussies bowled to england much at night in the whole test but in cloudy dark conditions where the lights were put on. I was at that test and remember that being the case so it has a night feel often. lot of rain. He got 3 and 5 wickets and went through them for a total of 8. So the numbers are a little tricky to assess with the conditions jeff. Brisbane is interesting. I think it would be interesting to get a real breakdown of where australia where bowling at night for the whole session too or if it was bit part. I think with the last two tests and the conditions in the adelaide DN tests v nz and england it holds up where he liked darker tricky conditions with lights on baring in mind he missed an innings with injury in the first test and we weren’t always bowling at night long. Brisbane I think is his weakest DN venue on averages.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Not long. Just looked at each over on commentary.
Pierro
Roar Rookie
one thing i can remember about those two earlier DN tests at Adelaide v NZ and England, it was rainy dark conditions a lot so starc had conditions in those that mimicked tricky evening bowling . He doesn’t tend to bowl as well at brisbane/gabba from memory , not his best ground. Adelaide and perth are where he excels on averages
Pierro
Roar Rookie
I must admit I thought he had more wickets at night, how on earth to did you get all that data together.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Yes, he has certainly used the pink ball well. Just a curiosity that up to this year has been during the day rather than evening - you'd think it would be the other way round..