- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Aaron Finch and Ryan Carters have broken a 92-year Australian record passing Edgar Mayne and Bill Ponsord’s first class opening stand of 456 in an extraordinary day of criket.
The duo, playing for the Cricket Australia XI piled on the pain for the touring New Zealand side at Blacktown bringing up the record in just 113 overs.
Finch reached a double century at the end of Day 1, while Carters brought his up after an hour on Day 2.
New Zealand’s woes were made worse by the fact that gun fast bowler Tim Southee only bowled three overs on Day 1 and didn’t return on the second morning due to sickness.
It meant the Black Caps ended up using 10 bowlers before lunch including back up wicketkeeper Tom Latham.
Spin bowler Mark Craig had the biggest workload and toiled for 31 overs and finished with figures of 0/127.
Both Finch and Carters also passed their highest first class scores on Day 2 as they started to up the ante to six runs an over. Finch smashing seven sixes in 288 not out.
As the batsmen continued to keep the scoreboard ticking over, the world record first class opening stand of 561 between Waheed Mirza & Mansoor Akhtar in 1976 looked within reach.
But with the score on 503, Carters was caught behind for 209 off the bowling of Latham (his maiden first class wicket) and the Cricket Australia XI immediately declared the innings with Finch missing out on the triple.
While it was a great milestone for the pair to reach it was, perhaps a little disappointing that the likes of Ashton Turner and Hilton Cartwright didn’t get a chance to show their potential.
After a horror day and a session in the field captain Brendon McCullum reportedly tried to double declare both New Zealand’s innings due to the state of the pitch.
Cricket Australia later released a statement saying The tour match was actually abandoned after an agreement between the two teams due to the pitch condition.
Here's the Blacktown pitch after four sessions of play #CAXIvNZ pic.twitter.com/kFCGxsEuml
— Samuel Ferris (@samuelfez) October 30, 2015
“Preparation of the wicket was compromised by poor weather conditions in Sydney early this week,” Head of Cricket Operations Sean Cary said.
#CAXIvNZ Looking at the state of the pitch, I'm not surprised at reports NZ have double declared. Just over one day in & it's a shambles.
— Ricardo Ascenso (@Ricky_A1) October 30, 2015
Typical Aussies and their doctored pitches… #CAXIvNZ #ausvnz https://t.co/PqvqSkGMd1
— Innocent Bystander (@InnoBystander) October 30, 2015
It means New Zealand goes into next Thursday’s first Test with little match practice for the batsmen under their belts. Cricket Australia said it’s working on a way to give the Black Caps another hit-out.
Build your own fantasy cricket team and put it to the test with Draftstars daily fantasy competitions. Pick your match, pick your team and watch the points roll in to take out cash prizes on each match. What are you really gambling with? Set a deposit limit.